Mario & Sonic: Superstar Battle
by Essteka
Summary: An explosion that happened on two planets at the same time created a fusion between these planets. Now, a plumber and a hedgehog meet each other for the first time and start a battle no one will ever forget.
1. Worlds Fusion

When I started writing fanfics, the first one I ever made was a crossover I wrote in French years ago. It was a crossover about my two all-time favorite video game series: Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog. Looking back, I realize that I improved a lot ever since I wrote it and this first fanfic of mine could have been written much better. In fact, it's pretty embarrassing in terms of dialogues and such. So, I decided to write a better version of it, this time in English. I'll try all my best to make it as good as possible. Anyway, here's the first chapter. If you are wondering, yes, this chapter is inspired by the first episode of "Sonic X", the first act of that episode to be exact.

In terms of timeline, it takes place after "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" and "Shadow the Hedgehog". Of course, you don't need to have played those games to understand the plot. Anyway, let's begin.

Chapter 1: Worlds Fusion

For every story, there's a beginning. Sometimes, in the beginning, you have to introduce the hero of the story. In the case of this story, we'll need two introductions. Why? You'll know soon enough.

In a faraway land, there was a kingdom known as the Mushroom Kingdom, a kingdom that was part of the Mushroom World. You'll be sure to never get bored in this kingdom. It was ruled by a beautiful princess named Peach Toadstool. She was beloved and respected by everyone. However, one day, the kingdom was invaded by an evil creature named Bowser Koopa, the King of the Koopas. Soon enough, Bowser kidnapped Peach in order to take over the kingdom. Luckily, a great hero, along with his brother, came to save the day. This hero was an Italian plumber named Mario. With the help of his brother Luigi, Mario was able to beat Bowser and to save Peach. Ever since that day, this plumber lived many extraordinary adventures. Loved by everyone all around the world, except by his numerous enemies, Mario is a true legend. A hero…

Recently, Bowser was able to capture all the seven Star Spirits and steal the Star Rod, kidnapping Peach in the process. He thought he was gonna win this time. But again, Mario wasn't going to let him win…

It was the night in the Mushroom Kingdom. Somewhere, there was a huge and dark castle in a land of lava. Not so far from the castle, two people were hiding behind a rock. One of these two people took a look at the castle. It was a man with a black mustache, brown hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a red cap with the letter 'M' in a white oval, blue overalls, a red shirt, white gloves and brown shoes. This was the legendary hero known as Mario. The plumber looked at the castle.

"Here we are. Bowser's-a Castle." he said to the other one with him.

It was a man who looked like Mario, except he was taller and a bit thinner. His shirt was green, just like his cap. The said cap had the letter 'L' in a white oval, instead of an 'M'. His name is Luigi, Mario's brother.

"You're-a sure Peach is in-a this castle?" Luigi asked.

"Well, she was-a kidnapped by-a Bowser and he's in-a this castle. Where else-a could she be?" Mario asked.

Luigi looked at Bowser's Castle. the green plumber seemed to be nervous.

"I'm a bit-a scared, Mario." he said, gulping.

"Oh, come on, Luigi! We defeated Bowser several-a times before." his brother said.

"Yeah. But each-a times, he's-a more powerful-a than the time-a before!"

"Well, nothing-a seems-a to stop us. Don't-a worry about it. I'm-a sure we can-a defeat him-a once again. Trust-a me." Mario said, confident.

The green plumber sighed.

"Alright then."

"Let's-a-go!" the red plumber exclaimed.

The two of them left the rock and made their way towards the castle. As they arrived near it, they looked at the large door. That door opened on its own. Both plumbers thought Bowser was waiting for them. The two heroes entered the castle. As soon as they entered it, they saw a whole hundreds of brown and white mushroom-shaped creatures with brown feet known as the Goombas.

"Mamma Mia!" Luigi yelled.

"Luigi, they're easy to defeat." Mario said.

"Yeah, but only when-a there's a couple of-a them. Not an entire army!"

Without waiting, they started fighting. As usual, Mario and Luigi jumped on the Goombas to defeat them. Some of the Goombas jumped at the plumbers while they were jumping on their colleagues. The heroes simply punched them when they jumped at them. It didn't take too long before all the Goombas were defeated.

"There. I told-a you they're easy to defeat." the red plumber said.

"Yeah, you were-a right. They were-a too easy to defeat, in-a fact." Luigi agreed.

The two heroes went to another room. Inside, there was a hundred of yellow-skinned turtles with shell and boots of different colors, the more commons being green and red. These were the Koopa Troopas.

"Koopa Troopas, charge!" one of the Koopa Troopas exclaimed, causing the others to charge towards our heroes.

"Oh, crud!" Luigi exclaimed.

"Leave it to me!" Mario said as he summoned a large hammer and used it to knock one Koopa Troopa out of his shell. The shell then slide on the floor, knocking out every other Koopa Troopas in the room. Once they were all knocked out, the shell continued to slide until Luigi jumped on top of it, stopping it.

"Nice-a one, Mario." his brother congratulated.

"You're-a welcome."

The heroes opened another door. This time, they entered a long path where they would have to dodge lava and fireballs. A dozen of skeleton versions of Koopa Troopas named Dry Bones were also walking around the path.

"Oh, great! Lava!" Luigi exclaimed. He then slapped his forehead. "Why am I surprised anyway? We're in-a Bowser's Castle!"

Then, they both gasped in alarm when they realized it was filled with living black rounded bombs more commonly known as Bob-Ombs.

"MAMMA MIA!" the Mario Bros. together exclaimed.

BOOM!

Soon enough, all the Bob-Ombs exploded, hitting the heroes. The two of them were laying on the ground, groaning in pain. With some difficulty, Mario reached into his pocket and grabbed two mushrooms.

"Good-a thing I always-a carry some-a mushrooms-a with me." he said as he ate a mushroom, giving him strength.

The plumber then gave the other mushroom to his brother, giving him back their energy.

"Those Bob-Ombs gave me a headache." the green plumber said.

"Are you okay?" his brother asked.

"Yeah. Just a bit tired of that. Nothing to worry about."

Without waiting, the heroes went to another room. This time, they arrived at where they wanted to go. They appeared in a room filled with a huge machine. Inside the machine, the Star Spirits were trapped within a force field. Near the machine was the one our heroes were searching for. It was a yellow-skinned dragon with a green skinned-head, orange eyebrows and hair, flesh-colored snout and underbelly, two horns on his head, a green spiked-shell, a spiked tail and black spiked collars around his neck and arms. His name is Bowser Koopa, King of the Koopas and Mario's archenemy. The dragon turned around to notice the heroes.

"Mario! You again!" he exclaimed. "Well, that's not a big surprise since I was waiting for you anyway."

"Enough talking, Bowser! Where's-a Peach?" Mario asked.

"Don't worry. She's in a safe place." Bowser said before smirking evilly.

The dragon pushed on a button, causing a cage to appear from the ceiling. Inside the cage was a young woman with long blond hair, blue eyes and red lipstick. She was wearing a pink dress, a golden crown, long white gloves, pink shoes, blue earrings and a blue diamond on her dress. Her name is Peach Toadstool, the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Mario! Luigi!" she exclaimed as she noticed the plumbers.

"Don't-a worry, Peach. We will-a save you!" Mario exclaimed.

"I don't think so, faucet head!" the dragon said as he held a rod with a bright star on top. That rod was the legendary Star Rod. "Just try stopping me, plumber!"

With the Star Rod, Bowser shoot an energy ball towards the red plumber. The latter avoided it by jumping in the air, causing the energy ball to miss him and hit the wall. Soon enough, Mario and Luigi ran towards the machine, hoping to free the Star Spirits. The plumbers jumped on the machine several times, causing it to gradually get broken. Without waiting, Bowser shoot another energy ball to the heroes. Seeing that, Luigi quickly grabbed Mario and ran away from the machine. However, this caused the energy ball to hit the machine itself. Many sparks of electricity appeared from it. Looking at it, the King of the Koopas started panicking.

"No! What have you done?" Bowser exclaimed.

"Does-a that mean-a we won?" Luigi asked, worried.

"No, you idiot! The machine's gonna explode and it won't be pretty for all of us!" the dragon replied.

Hearing what Bowser just said, the heroes had their eyes widened in shock. Before they could do anything, an enormous explosion happened. Given the fact the machine was powered by the Star Spirits and was given damages by two plumbers jumping on it several times to break it and one hit from a powerful rod, there's no wonder why this explosion was so gigantic. In fact, it caused a giant and powerful beam of light that covered the whole planet...

* * *

><p>In another planet, called Mobius, there was also another hero. Like the Mushroom World, Mobius was a peaceful planet. Until a certain evil scientist named Doctor Ivo Robotnik AKA Doctor Eggman came and captured every animals he could find. Then, he used them to make his robots working. Unfortunately for Eggman, one animal was able to avoid being captured since he was VERY fast. It was a hedgehog named Sonic. Seeing that the other animals couldn't stand a chance against the evil scientist, the hedgehog went into a quick adventure to destroy all the robots and freeing the animals. Ever since that day, Eggman tried many other ways to take over the world, but Sonic was always there to ruin his plans. The hedgehog met a lot of friends and allies ever since as well. During all those years, Sonic became a famous and great icon. Another hero…<p>

Not so long ago, Dr. Eggman was able to get all the seven Chaos Emeralds, along with the Master Emerald. As usual, the blue hedgehog was about to beat the evil scientist once again…

It was a bright day as Eggman was in his headquarters, working on his latest evil plan. The man was tall, with his stomach shaped like an egg while also having long and thin legs and arms. Along with the fact he was bald, he had a large orange mustache. He was wearing a red coat, sunglasses, white gloves, goggles on his head, black pants and black shoes. The evil scientist was sitting on a chair, looking at some large machine where the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were placed inside. He laughed evilly.

"Soon, I shall conquer the world! And no one, not even that annoying hedgehog will stop me!" Eggman exclaimed. He then rubbed his chin as he thought of something. "Hmm... I have the feeling said hedgehog is actually coming here." He pressed on a button that was on a nearby keyboard. A television set was on. Looking at the TV, which was linked to a camera outside the headquarters, Eggman noticed a blue plane flying in the sky towards his location. He recognized someone on top of that plane. "I knew it!"

Above the blue plane was a 15 years-old blue hedgehog with beige skin on his mouth, his stomach, his arms and the inside of his ears. His eyes were green. He was wearing white gloves and red and white shoes with a yellow buckle. This is Sonic the Hedgehog, the brave hero of Mobius. At this moment, he was standing on top of the plane's wings.

The one piloting the plane was an 8 years-old fox with two tails. His fur was yellow everywhere, except on his stomach, his mouth and the tips on his tails where it was white. He was wearing white gloves and red and white shoes. His name is Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's best friend.

There was also a passenger with them. It was a 16 years-old red echidna with purple eyes and a white ring on his chest. He was wearing white mitten gloves with spikes on it, green socks and red and yellow sneakers with metallic braces on it. His name is Knuckles the Echidna, a friend of Sonic and Tails, but also a rival of Sonic at times.

"Knuckles, could you remind me how Eggman was able to steal the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked to the echidna.

"Well, I didn't tell you guys what happened yet." Knuckles replied.

"Ah, I knew I didn't forget it. So, what happened?"

"He sent me a good bunch of giant robots on Angel Island just to distract me. By the time I was done with the last one, Angel Island started to fall down, and I instantly knew something bad happened to the Master Emerald."

"We're getting closer to Eggman's base, guys. Hang on!" Tails exclaimed as he started landing the plane near the headquarters.

One minute later, the three heroes were out of the plane, which was parked next to Eggman's base. They were heading towards the door. All of sudden, they heard a noise. The heroes turned around and saw a missile coming at them.

"Run!" Knuckles exclaimed.

The three heroes ran as fast as they could towards the door. Suddenly, Tails got an idea.

"Sonic, grab my legs! Knuckles, grab Sonic's legs! I got an idea." The fox said.

His friends nodded as the hedgehog grabbed his legs and held onto them. Tails spun his tails like a helicopter and flied up in the air. Knuckles grabbed Sonic's legs and held onto them. Tails flied towards the door before facing the missile. The later was heading towards them. At the last second, Tails flied up as fast as he could, bringing his friends with him. The missile exploded onto the door, destroying it. Some seconds later, the fox flied down as Knuckles released Sonic's legs from his grip. The hedgehog then released Tails' legs from his grip as well.

"Good job, Tails!" Sonic said, making a thumbs up.

"Thanks, Sonic." Tails said, smiling at Sonic's comment.

"Once again, Eggman failed to get rid of us. And once again, I won't fail to punch him hard." Knuckles said, punching his fist in his hand.

"Hum, I have the feeling we'll have to deal with lots of robots before getting to him." Sonic said, pointing towards the army of robots appearing at the other side of the now destroyed door.

"That kind of thing never stopped us before, didn't it?"

"Nope." The hedgehog said, smirking.

Without wasting any time, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles charged towards the army of robots. Several of them were the Egg Pawns, robots of different shapes and colors. The orange Egg Pawns on the ground tried to hit Sonic by punching him. The hedgehog dodged them. He then jumped in the air and headed straight towards them, destroying them by using his Homing Attack. A trio of green flying Egg Pawns was floating above the heroes. They aimed at Sonic, going to shoot a laser at him. Suddenly, Tails flied up in the air and punched them, even using his tails to hit them. Meanwhile, Knuckles was dealing with two large purple Egg Pawns, carrying maces. They were three times his size. The large robots tried to swing their maces towards the echidna. The later avoided them, not without difficulty. Knuckles punched them a couple of times until one of them hit the echidna with his mace, sending him face first against a nearby wall. Knuckles landed on the floor. He stood up, rubbing his head. He then glared at the robots before charging towards them. Avoiding their maces again, the echidna jumped on the back of one of them. The other robot saw Knuckles and tried to hit him with his mace. However, the echidna jumped at the last second, causing the robot to destroy the other robot with his mace. Knuckles then arrived on the remaining purple robot and grabbed onto its head. With all his might, Knuckles grabbed the robot's head and managed to rip it off. The robot was still functional as it tried to hit the echidna. Fortunately, Knuckles jumped off the robot's body once again, causing the robot to accidentally destroy itself. The echidna landed on the ground and threw the robot's head away. At the same time, Sonic rolled himself into a ball, charging his Spin Dash. He unleashed his Spin Dash as he rolled fast through several robots in front of him. The hedgehog then came across a yellow robot with a sword. The robot swung its sword many times at Sonic. The latter simply yawned as he dodged the sword each time.

"You're done? Okay, my turn." The hedgehog said, smirking. Sonic jumped and used his Homing Attack against the robot, destroying it. The hedgehog stood up, dusting himself before looking around. There were no more robots around him, only Tails and Knuckles. "That went well."

"We should hurry up before Eggman uses the power of the emeralds." Tails said.

"Well, I know one way to hurry up."

The hedgehog quickly grabbed the hands of his friends, Tails on his left and Knuckles on his right. Only a few seconds later, Sonic headed straight with his incredible speed, bringing his friends with him. The hedgehog avoided robots, pits and other dangerous stuff while going so fast. Several minutes later, they arrived near a large door with Eggman's face on it.

"How much do you wanna bet he's here?" Knuckles asked.

"Is it even worth betting when it's already so obvious?" Sonic asked.

"I guess not."

They went through the door, going into a room. Just as they suspected, Eggman was there, with his machine containing all seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald.

"Ah, Sonic! I was wondering when you would come. I don't want to use a clichéd villain line, but you're too late to stop my evil plan!" Eggman exclaimed, laughing evilly.

"Well, Eggman, one thing you seem to forget is that YOU'RE too late to stop us from stopping you."

"You think so? Let's see who's right and who's wrong!"

The evil scientist took a remote control and pressed on the button. Soon enough, a large robot with laser canons on its arms appeared in the room. The robot aimed at the heroes.

"Tails, take care of the machine with the emeralds. Knuckles and I will stop that robot." Sonic said to the fox.

"Got it!" Tails nodded before going towards the machine.

The hedgehog and the echidna avoided the lasers shoot by the robot as much as they could. Sonic tried to hit it with his Homing Attack a couple of times while Knuckles tried to punch it. The fox was in front of the machine, trying to figure out how to get the emeralds out of it. Eggman noticed Tails in front of the machine.

"Forget about these idiots! Get rid of that fox!" Eggman exclaimed to the robot.

The robot nodded as he turned around and shoot a laser at the fox.

"Tails! Watch out!" Sonic yelled in alarm.

"Huh?" Tails said as he turned around.

The fox yelped when he saw the laser coming at him. Just in time, Sonic ran and grabbed Tails, bringing his friend out of the way. The laser then hit the machine, damaging it. Suddenly, the machine started to malfunction, making loud noises.

"You moronic robot! I said the fox, not the machine!" Eggman yelled in annoyance to the robot.

At this moment, the emeralds started to shine brightly.

"What's going on?" Sonic asked.

A beam of light was emitted from the emeralds. Gradually, the beam of light grow bigger, covering everything around.

"A Chaos..." Knuckles said.

"Control!" Tails exclaimed.

Eggman's base was soon covered by the beam of light. In less than an hour, it was Mobius that was entirely covered by that light...

* * *

><p>The next morning, Bowser was laying on the floor, unconscious. Soon enough, he gradually woke up. The dragon stood up, groaning while doing so.<p>

"Oh... What a nightmare... It was just..." Suddenly, Bowser realized where he was. He looked around in shock. He was in his castle, but his castle looked a bit too different. It was like if it was mixed with something else. Various parts of his castle were either replaced or mixed with some sort of technology. "MY CASTLE! Who dared touching at my castle? No one touches at my castle without any consequences!" He roared, angry to see his castle like that.

One thing Bowser didn't know was that he wasn't alone. On the other side of a nearby table, a certain evil scientist was laying on the floor, unconscious like the Koopa King some moments earlier. Eggman stood up, rubbing his forehead while groaning. The evil scientist looked around in alarm.

"Hey! What happened to my headquarters?" He wondered out loud.

It was at this moment that Bowser noticed Eggman. The dragon was soon furious.

"You!" he exclaimed. Eggman turned around and was surprised to see the huge reptile. "You're the one who ruined my castle!"

The evil scientist seemed outraged to hear that.

"Your castle? You mean MY headquarters!" He exclaimed.

"Your headquarters? Oh, no! There's no way I'm gonna let an idiot like yourself taking my castle away like that!"

"An idiot? You obviously don't know me very well! I am Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik! The most intelligent man on this planet!"

"Say that to my fist!"

Without warning, Bowser punched Eggman in the face. The evil scientist was thrown away by the punch, crushing himself against the wall. Eggman stood up and glared at the Koopa King.

"Alright, reptile. This is the first and last time you mess with me!" The evil scientist exclaimed.

Eggman took a laser gun from his pocket and shoot at Bowser. The latter yelped in alarm when he got hit by the laser. Just like Eggman before, the Koopa King was thrown onto a nearby wall. After he stood up, he then charged towards Eggman. He avoided his laser and breathed fire at his new enemy. Soon after, Eggman's legs were on fire. The scientist yelled in pain before jumping from a nearby window and landing on a pool filled with water. He sighed in relief as the fire was gone.

"I knew my pool of water was there."

Without wasting any time, Eggman got out of the pool and came back to where Bowser was.

"Stay out of my castle, Eggfan!" the dragon exclaimed.

"First of all, it's Eggman!" The scientist corrected.

"Whatever..."

"Second of all, this isn't your castle. It's my headquarters!"

"Oh, you don't think I would be able to recognize my OWN castle? It's already bad that I wasn't able to defeat my archenemy last night, I don't need to not be able to recognize my own home!" Bowser exclaimed.

"Wait a minute... You failed to defeat your archenemy last night?" Eggman asked.

"Yeah. And so?"

"Hold on a minute..." Eggman kept thinking about something. What the dragon just said made him thought of something. "Just per curiosity... Are you someone who wants to take over the world but never have been able to do because one specific hero keeps foiling your plans over and over?"

Bowser arched an eyebrow at what Eggman just said.

"How do you know that? You have psychic powers?"

The evil scientist held his fists in the air, like if he just won a victory.

"Brilliant! I'm brilliant!" he exclaimed. "By the way, what is your name?"

"If you want to know, I'm Bowser Koopa, King of the Koopas. But I gotta know, how did you guess I'm trying to take over the world?" Bowser replied.

"Well, Bowser, tell me more about your archenemy. I have a certain feeling about this."

In the following minutes, Bowser told everything there was to know about Mario. When he was done, Eggman then told him several things about Sonic, explaining that the hedgehog was his archenemy as well.

"Hmm... It looks like we both have many things in common, Bowser." Eggman commented. "There must be something that explains the fact that two bad guys like us would end up meeting each other like that."

"You do have a point, Eggman. Though I wonder... Is it possible that what happened to me last night has something to do with it?" Bowser wondered out loud.

"What exactly happened last night?" the evil scientist asked.

The dragon explained to Eggman what happened to him last night. The later was slack-jawed to hear that.

"The same thing happened to me! Well, except that I didn't kidnap a princess and I had a bunch of emeralds instead of a bunch of stars and a rod." Eggman said. "But it's basically the same thing."

"You said earlier you were living in Mobius. I live in the Mushroom World. How could we both meet even though we live in different planets?" Bowser asked.

"Well, we could have used spaceships to go from one planet to another. However, I don't recall using a spaceship recently and I suppose you don't either. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I think what happened to both of us last night IS the cause of our meeting. My accident happened at the same time as your accident, which must have caused some sort of space-time reaction that's responsible for our meeting. Since you claim this is your castle while I claim it's my headquarters... Of course! Our worlds have fused together! This is the result of that space-time reaction. It's simple as that!"

The evil scientist looked at the dragon. The latter seemed confused at what Eggman said.

"Hum... I'm not too sure to follow what you're saying, but I think I understand it enough. But still... Ouch!" Bowser exclaimed when he stepped on something. He looked down and saw something under his foot. "What is that?"

Eggman looked down and immediately recognized what it was.

"It's the purple Chaos Emerald!" The evil scientist grabbed the Emerald and looked at it. He noticed something inside of it. "What is that? It looks like... a star."

"A star?" Bowser asked. "Give me that." The reptile took a look at the emerald and saw the star Eggman was talking about. "It's one of the Star Spirits! Wait... Does that mean..."

"...each of the Star Spirits is now stuck in each of the Chaos Emeralds? That's what I'm thinking as well!" Eggman said.

"But where's the Star Rod?" Bowser wondered.

"I have no ide... AAH!" The evil scientist accidentally tripped on something, falling face first against the floor. He stood up while rubbing his nose. He grabbed the thing that made him trip. "Is that what you're searching?" Eggman drily said as he handed the thing that made him fall to the dragon.

The later took a look and was surprised to see that. Much to his delight, Eggman was holding the Star Rod in his hand.

"Yes, it is!" Bowser shouted while taking the rod away. He then noticed the Star Rod was bright green now. "But why is it all green?"

Eggman thought about it for some seconds. He then found an answer.

"The Star Rod must have absorbed the Master Emerald. Although, now that I think about it..."

"What?" The dragon asked.

"If the Star Rod absorbed the Master Emerald, their powers must have combined, making the Star Rod more powerful than before. And I have the feeling the Chaos Emeralds must have absorbed the powers of the Star Spirits as well. Which means... If one person was able to get all the emeralds, plus the Star Rod, that person... would be able to take over the world!"

Both the evil scientist and the dragon were smiling widely.

"This is great news, Eggman!" Bowser said. "But... Where's the rest of the Emeralds?"

"Well, maybe they're still in this mix of your castle and my headquarters. Let's see if we can find them here."

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Bowser and Eggman were back to when they first met. They searched everywhere around their castleheadquarters and hadn't found any emeralds.

"Okay, I have the feeling the emeralds are all around the world." The evil scientist commented.

"Oh, this is gonna take a long time just to get all those darn emeralds!" The King of Koopas groaned.

"Unless..." Eggman said, thinking about something.

"Unless what?"

"Unless... Oh! I've got probably the most brilliant idea in all my life!"

"What is it? I'm getting impatient!"

"Well, what if it was SOMEONE ELSE who would travel around the world to get those emeralds for us? To make it even better, what if it was our archenemies who would do all that work?"

"Wait, you want Mario and Sonic go get those emeralds for us? That's insane, Eggman! It'll never work!" Bowser said.

"It'll work if we TRICK them! That's the solution. You see, Mario doesn't know me. Sonic doesn't know you. I'll convince Mario to search for the emeralds. You'll convince Sonic to do the same. And as soon as they get all the emeralds, we'll steal them right away!" Eggman explained.

"Well, your plan seems to work. There's just one problem, though. What if Mario and Sonic meet each other? I have the feeling they would discuss about a couple of things and come to the conclusion they were tricked by each other's archenemy." Bowser said.

"Oh, yeah. That's a problem... No, wait! I know what to do! We'll just lie about each other. When I'll meet Mario, I'll convince him Sonic is evil. When you'll meet Sonic, you'll tell him the same thing about Mario. That way, they won't trust each other and, who knows, maybe they will even fight."

"Oh! That would be evilly ironic. I like that!" The dragon said.

"Then, it's settled. We'll go find each other's enemy right now and lie to him. Just reminds me what Mario looks like." Eggman said.

"Easy. He has a mustache, wears blue overalls, a red cap with an 'M' on it and a red shirt. That's the basic description. You might find him with some other guy that looks like him and wears green. He might also be with that blonde gal with the pink dress." Bowser said. "What about Sonic? You said he's a hedgehog?"

"A blue hedgehog to be exact. He wears red shoes and white gloves. He'll most likely be seen with a yellow fox with two tails and a red echidna with spiked fists."

"Good. Let our plan begins..." Bowser said, sinisterly.

End of chapter.

Well, that was quite a long chapter compared to most chapters I do. It's not a perfect chapter, but it's the best I could come up with. Anyway, both Bowser and Eggman met and already have their plans ready. What's gonna happen next? Just wait and see.

The Mario part was partly inspired by the beginning of Super Mario RPG: three rooms where Mario has to fight some enemies before getting to Bowser. The Star Spirits are the same from "Paper Mario" on the N64.

The plot may seem a bit similar to "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe", where two worlds are mixed together. Well, I had that idea years before MK vs DCU was even announced, so that didn't inspire me even if it is similar.

Read and review!


	2. Being Tricked

Time to answer some reviews.

Gokiburi Prince: Hum… You know there are TONS of Mario and Sonic crossover on the Internet aside from SMBZ? Just take a look at the fanfic section my crossover is in and you'll find a lot of crossovers with these two in. I highly recommend you read "Mario and Sonic: Heroes Unite!" by Azurixx, probably the best Mario and Sonic crossover I've seen. In my opinion, it's better than SMBZ (yeah, I totally said that).

AndieTiggerPyro: No characters who appeared after Paper Mario 2 and Shadow's spin-off game will make an appearance. I want to make this as close to the canon of both series as possible. It would be weird if, for example, Rosalina made an appearance even though this story is supposed to take place before "Super Mario Galaxy".

Anyway, here's the second chapter.

Chapter 2: Being Tricked

In some forest on this newly fused world, a certain red-wearing plumber was laying on the ground, unconscious. Gradually, Mario woke up, opening his eyes and seeing the blue sky. He sat on the ground, rubbing his head while groaning. He looked around, trying to learn where he was. To his surprise, he found Luigi, unconscious and a few feet away from him. Mario quickly came near where his brother was.

"Luigi! Are you alright?" No answer came. "Luigi! Wake up!"

"Mama, I don't-a want to go to school-a today!" The green-wearing plumber said, obviously sleeping.

"I'm-a not Mama. I'm-a your bro!" Mario replied.

"Give-a me five minutes, Mama."

Mario tried to shake his brother hard enough to wake him up. It didn't seem to work. Mario sighed before thinking of a way to wake up Luigi. He looked around and saw a pond of water near them. The red plumber looked back at his brother.

"Well, since I have-a no other choice…"

Mario grabbed his brother and carried him over his shoulder. He came near the pond and threw Luigi in the water. The later instantly woke up, panicking in the water.

"Ah! I'm-a sinking! Help!" He screamed until he realized something. "Wait…" With his feet, he was able to touch the bottom of the water pond, while the water only reached half of his body. Luigi smiled sheepishly at that. "Nevermind, no one is-a sinking." He looked up and saw his brother standing on the grass. "Mario! You're-a the one who threw me in-a the pond, right?" He asked, angry to see his brother doing that to him.

"Sorry, Luigi. It was-a the only way to wake-a you up." Mario said, apologizing.

"I wish you found a better-a solution." Luigi said as he went out of the pond, grabbed his green hat, squeezed it to get the water out of it and put it back on his head. "By the way, what happened last-a night? I forgot."

Mario thought about last night, trying to remember what happened. He then suddenly remembered the events.

"Oh, I remember! There was an explosion with Bowser's-a machine. He had all the seven-a Star Spirits, plus-a the Star Rod. He also had Peach… Peach!" He exclaimed in panic. "Where is she now?"

"Over here!"

Mario and Luigi looked up. Peach was hanging on a branch in a nearby tree.

"Don't-a move, Peach! We'll-a get you out of there!" The red plumber exclaimed.

"Do it quickly, because I don't how much longer I'll be able to…"

All of sudden, the branch broke itself, sending the princess to fall towards the ground. As fast as he could, Mario arrived right below her and caught her in his arms. Both sighed in relief.

"Oh, Mario… Thank you for catching me." She said, smiling before kissing him on his cheek.

The plumber blushed at that.

"Hum… Bro?" Luigi said.

"What is it, Luigi?" Mario asked before putting Peach on the ground.

"I don't-a want to interrupt your romance-a with Peach, but…" The green plumber pointed towards him. "I'm-a not sure-a we're at home."

Mario and Peach looked at what Luigi was pointing at. Some feet away from them, there were things they've never seen before. The first thing they've noticed was a huge loop-de-loop, with several others in the distance. They also saw lots of rings floating above the ground. Luigi then noticed some panel on the ground. The panel had an arrow on it. The green plumber went near that panel and looked at it.

"Are you thinking of-a something?" His brother asked.

"Well, it's just that this-a panel looks-a weird to me…"

Luigi put his right feet on it. All of sudden, he was running incredibly fast.

"Luigi!" Mario and Peach exclaimed in shock.

"What's-a going on? Somebody help-a me!" The green plumber exclaimed.

Running so fast was so tiring for him, he needed the feel to break. He did break, but this caused him to trip and land face first on the ground. Luigi stood up, groaning. Mario and Peach quickly came near him.

"Luigi! Are you alright?" Peach asked.

"Yeah, but let-a me give-a you an advice. Don't EVER step on that-a panel!" Luigi exclaimed in annoyance. "Unless you want to lose-a weight."

Mario looked at the dash panel. He then looked back at the rings floating above the ground, pondering for a while.

"You know, these-a rings remind me of all those-a coins I collect on my adventures." Mario commented.

"Maybe we entered a dimension where those-a rings are the coins of-a that dimension." Luigi commented.

"Probably…" Peach said. "Personally, I think we should move on and try to find where we are."

Both plumbers nodded at what she said. Soon, all three of them began moving, looking for someone or something that would help them get back home.

* * *

><p>About one hour later, Dr. Eggman was riding his Egg Mobile in the sky. The Egg Mobile was a small hovercraft with a shape almost similar to an egg, with a small round lamp in front of it. The mad scientist looked down, trying to find anyone that could fit Bowser's description of the dragon's archenemy. At this moment, he was above some forest.<p>

"A guy wearing red with a mustache, with possibly a guy in green and a young woman in pink… They could be anywhere in this world!" He exclaimed in annoyance. "I'd be lucky if I suddenly run into them and… Wait!"

He noticed three people walking in the forest. Eggman took a pair of binoculars and looked down. He saw none other than Mario, Luigi and Peach, all three of them walking on a path. The mad scientist smirked evilly.

"Right now, I AM lucky!"

Eggman put back the pair the binoculars and rode his Egg Mobile to go past the trio while making sure they wouldn't notice him right away. He landed his hovercraft between some trees and got out of it. The mad scientist came near a bunch of trees close to the path the plumbers and the princess were walking on. Eggman looked at them, seeing they were coming close to him and they hadn't notice him yet.

"Time for the plan to begins." He said to himself.

Eggman sat down near the tree… and started crying in despair.

"It's a disaster!" He exclaimed while crying. "It's over now! There's nothing we can do about it!"

Mario, Luigi and Peach were taken by surprise to hear someone crying. Mario then looked at where the crying was coming from. His friends and him came near where Eggman was and finally noticed him. The trio looked at each other before looking back at the scientist.

"Hey… Is there-a something-a wrong?" Mario asked to Eggman.

The latter turned his head around, acting like he hadn't notice the plumbers and the princess before. He stood up, rubbing his tears away.

"Who… Who are you?" Eggman asked, looking sad.

"My name is-a Mario. This is-a my brother, Luigi, and this is-a Princess-a Peach." The plumber replied while pointing at the other two. "Do you have a problem? We might help-a you."

"Oh, I'm not sure you could help me with my problem." Eggman said, looking away.

"Well, at least tell us what is your problem and we'll see if you use our help." Peach suggested.

"Hmm… Oh, alright." The mad scientist said, looking back at the trio. "I am Dr. Allen." He said, lying on his identity. "I am a scientist who is studying the Chaos Emeralds."

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Mario asked.

"Yes, the Chaos Emeralds. Don't tell me you've never heard of the Chaos Emeralds…" The plumbers and the princess shook their heads, meaning 'no'. "Oh, I get it! You three must be from that other world. Am I right?"

"Other world?" Luigi asked, confused. "Wait… Does that mean we just travel through space?"

"Well, sort of. Let me explain…"

Eggman then went on tell a story that was half true and half false. He said the Chaos Emeralds were seven emeralds with incredible powers, especially when all seven are together. Dr. 'Allen' was studying the Chaos Emeralds when he was suddenly attacked by an evil hedgehog named Sonic. The hedgehog came to steal the Emeralds as it would allow him to take over the world. 'Allen' tried to stop Sonic, but it caused an explosion that covered his whole planet, known as Mobius. Mario and his friends jumped in shock at the last part.

"The same thing happened to us last night!" The princess exclaimed.

"You're sure about that?" Eggman said, pretending to not already know what happened.

The plumbers and the princess then told him what happened to them with Bowser and the Star Spirits.

"Well, then… That confirms my theory about my planet being fused with yours! The reaction caused by the Chaos Emeralds, along with the reaction caused by the Star Spirits happening at the same time, is what caused both of our worlds to become one!" Eggman said.

"So, that's-a why we've-a seen all those-a strange-a things, because-a they're-a from-a your-a planet. Those-a rings and those-a loop-de-loops… They're-a from-a where-a you live!" Luigi said.

"You forget that-a panel-a with the arrow on it." Mario commented.

"Don't-a remind me that…" The green plumber said, frowning at the thought of the panel.

"Speaking of-a which, Dr. Allen… Have-a you seen anything that might-a be from our world?" Mario asked.

"Well, I've seen some strange turtles a couple of hours ago. I've seen some turtles before, but nothing like those." The mad scientist said.

The plumbers and the princess looked at each other, already guessing he saw the Koopa Troopas. Soon after, Peach thought about something, rubbing her chin while thinking about it. The plumbers noticed that.

"What are you thinking, Peach?" The red plumber asked.

"Hmm… The more I think about it… What if the Star Spirits and the Chaos Emeralds were brought together and made another reaction similar to what happened last night? Would it be possible to have our worlds back to normal, Dr. Allen?" She asked to the scientist.

"Of course, that sounds logical! In fact, it sounds like the only good thing to do." Eggman said. "There's just one problem though. Sonic might be searching for the Chaos Emeralds right now. And if he learns of the Star Spirits…" He suddenly gasped in terror. "I fear what would happen if he gets his hands on all of them!"

"Ah, don't-a worry, Dr. Allen!" Mario said cheerfully. "We'll-a get those Emeralds and those-a Stars before-a that Sonic ever-a come-a close-a to them!"

"You… You really think you can do that?"

"Oh, yeah! We've been on several adventures-a before." Luigi said.

"Well then… I guess it's settled. You will find them before that diabolical hedgehog and you will not only save your world, but mine as well!" Eggman exclaimed with joy.

"What about you, Peach?" Mario asked to the princess. "You wanna come with us?"

"Well… I'm honestly tired of being the damsel in distress, so… Sure! I'll be glad to join you two on this adventure!" She replied, smiling.

"Good!"

"By the way, what does that hedgehog looks like?" Luigi asked to Eggman.

"Sonic is blue-furred with red and white shoes. There's a good chance you might see him with a two-tailed fox and a red-furred echidna. They're just as bad as he is." The mad scientist explained.

"Got it." Luigi said.

"Come on, you two!" Mario said to Luigi and Peach. "We have-a the Star Spirits and the Chaos Emeralds to find. Let's-a go!"

His brother and the princess nodded to him. Soon after, all three of them ran away, ready to go on another adventure. Eggman smirked evilly when they left.

"They have no idea what they're getting themselves into…" he said to himself.

* * *

><p>Unconscious at the bottom of a hill, a certain young fox was unconscious. Slowly, Tails opened his eyes, regaining his consciousness. He sat up, rubbing his head and groaning.<p>

"Ow, my head… Where are the others?" The fox looked around and saw Knuckles and Sonic, bot unconscious. The echidna was on the hedgehog's back. Tails ran towards them and stopped near them. "Knuckles! Sonic!"

The echidna opened his eyes, waking up. He groaned as he sat up.

"Hey, Tails… Where's Sonic?" He asked.

"Right under you, Knux." The hedgehog said, waking up and frowning at the echidna sitting on his back.

"Oops! Sorry, Sonic." Knuckles said as he immediately stood up.

Sonic stood up as well, dusting himself right after.

"Okay, guys. I remember that Eggman had the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald last night. I also remember the explosion. I just don't know where we ended up." Tails said.

"I don't know where we ended up either." The echidna said.

"Well, I don't know where we are, but it sure looks weird." Sonic said as he looked around.

All three Mobians looked around. They saw large mushrooms, lots of green pipes and many floating blocks with an interrogation point on each of them.

"Those mushrooms remind me of those on Angel Island." Knuckles said.

Sonic came right under one of the blocks and hit it by jumping. The interrogation mark disappeared, with a red mushroom with white dots. The hedgehog grabbed the mushroom and looked at it.

"Hmm… I wonder what that is…"

The hedgehog ate the mushroom at once. He had a weird sensation in his stomach. Sonic then felt incredibly healthy.

"Are you alright?" Tails asked.

"I feel more than alright, buddy! I feel like I've eaten nothing but healthy food in all my life!" The hedgehog exclaimed cheerfully. He then hit another block. However, instead of a mushroom, it was a green and orange flower that appeared. Sonic looked at it, arching an eyebrow. "I wonder what that is."

Sonic ate the flower. Suddenly, his blue fur was now all orange. Tails and Knuckles couldn't believe their eyes.

"Sonic! That's just…" Knuckles began to say.

"Yeah, I know. It's weird." The hedgehog said while throwing his hand in front of him.

Suddenly, a fireball was shot from his hand and hit a nearby rock. All three Mobians were extremely surprised to see that.

"Wow…" Tails said, amazed.

"Okay… This is wicked!" Sonic exclaimed, grinning.

The hedgehog ran around, shooting fireballs for fun while making sure he wasn't hurting anyone. All of sudden, he missed his shot and accidentally shot a fireball towards Knuckles. The latter jumped high in the air, screaming before landing back. He glared at Sonic, the latter smiling sheepishly.

"Eh, sorry, Knuckles. I didn't…"

One second later, Knuckles punched Sonic. The hedgehog then landed on his back. At the same time, his orange fur went back to being blue. Sonic sat up, looking at his fur. He tried to shoot a fireball, but it no longer seemed to work.

"You're no longer able to make those fireballs, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"I guess not, Tails."

"Hmm…" The fox began to ponder about it. "Maybe Knuckles' punch is what caused you to lose that power. Just one hit and it vanishes."

"If it means he can no longer shoot them at me, I'm fine with that." Knuckles said, still bitter about earlier.

"Sorry, Knuckles! I wasn't aiming at you!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry for the punch." The echidna apologized.

"Well, how about we check what all the other blocks have inside? This should be a lot of fun!" The hedgehog said.

"Shouldn't we first try to find where we are?" Tails asked.

"Eh, it can wait. It won't take us too much time to check those blocks."

"Well… Okay then." Tails shrugged.

* * *

><p>Unknown to the Mobians, Bowser was flying above them, riding a white and green vehicle with a green propeller and the face of a clown named the Koopa Clown Car. The dragon just spotted Sonic and his friends. He watched as the three of them were trying all the items that were in the blocks.<p>

"They fit Eggman's descriptions. Perfect!" Bowser said to himself.

Memorizing where the Mobians were, the dragon flied away and landed in a place that was far enough from Sonic and his friends. At the moment, Tails was wearing a black helmet and a black shell on his back. The fox was throwing lots of hammers from out of nowhere.

"This is impressive! That's a great attack to do!" He said, enjoying what he was doing.

Meanwhile, Sonic had raccoon ears above between his own ears, along with a raccoon tail next to his own tail.

"Feels weird to have an extra pair of ears and one more tail… but this is so cool!" The hedgehog said while flying.

"Hey, Sonic! Looks like I'm not the only one with two tails and who can fly!" Tails said, chuckling.

"You got that right, buddy!" Sonic said. "Hey, Knuckles! What power did you…"

The hedgehog stopped flying when he saw the echidna. Sonic fell on the ground and just stare at Knuckles. Some seconds later, the hedgehog was laughing out loud. It turns out Knuckles was wearing a frog suit. The echidna was frowning. Tails noticed him in his frog suit and couldn't help but chuckling.

"Stop that, you two." He said.

"Sorry, Knuckles, but… Man, you look ridiculous in that outfit!" Sonic said, trying to stop laughing.

"Look on the bright side." Tails said. "You must have great powers with that."

"I jump high." Knuckles said, not impressed.

"Well, that's a good power." The hedgehog said. "And I bet you swim with that thing too."

"I already swim well enough, Sonic. The only one who would need to swim well is you."

"Oh, I'm hurt!" Sonic said, pretending to be hurt in a melodramatic way. "Seriously though, that frog suit doesn't seem useless." He said in a sincere way.

"Help! I need some help!"

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were surprised to hear that. They turned their heads around and noticed Bowser coming towards them.

"Who is this guy?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. Never seen him before." The fox said.

Bowser pretended to notice them for the first time and came near them, looking in despair.

"Oh, please! You three! You must help me! If not, then my whole kingdom is doomed! Worst, my whole world is doomed!" Bowser said while kneeling and pleading to them.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down, big guy!" The hedgehog said, trying to calm the dragon down. "First, tell us who you are and what we can do to help you."

"Alright, then. I am King Augustus." He said, lying on his identity as well. "I come from a peaceful kingdom where everyone is having a good life, in the Mushroom World. Last night, I received the visit of the seven Star Spirits. Everything was fine with them. But suddenly, we got the unexpected visit of that nasty man known as Mario!"

"Mario? Who is this guy?" Sonic asked.

"He's the most evil person I've ever met!" Bowser replied. "He tried to capture the Star Spirits and use their powers to conquer the whole world. I've tried to stop him, but this caused the Star Spirits to use their powers in a way they never used it before! It caused a beam of light to cover our world… And now, I feel like our world's been mixed with another." He said, almost sobbing.

"Wait a minute…" Tails said. "Almost the same thing happened to us before."

"Really?" Bowser asked.

In the following minutes, the fox told to the dragon what happened to them last night. Tails then started to think about something.

"You know what? I have the feeling the reaction of the Chaos Emeralds and the reaction of the Star Spirits may have caused Mobius to be fused with the Mushroom World." The fox said.

"You know what else this means?" The dragon asked. "If Mario learns of the existence of your Chaos Emeralds, he will no doubt want to get them along with the Star Spirits. Who knows what he will do with the combined powers of all of them!"

"That doesn't sound good." Knuckles said.

"Someone must stop Mario from taking over the world! If nobody stops him, it'll be over for everyone!" Bowser exclaimed in despair.

"You have nothing to fear, King Augustus!" Sonic said. "If anyone's willing to teach a lesson to that Mario guy, it's me!" He said, smirking.

"As always, you can count me in, Sonic!" Tails said.

"You guys will need some muscles. I'm coming too." The echidna said.

"Thanks, guys!" The hedgehog said, giving them a thumbs up. "We'll find the Chaos Emeralds and the Star Spirits. If we ever meet Mario and he causes us trouble, we're gonna give him some troubles of our own!" He turned around to face Bowser. "Speaking of which, what does he look like?"

"He has a mustache. Mario also wears blue overalls and a red cap."

"Good. Anything else we should know?"

"You might find him with a guy who looks like him. He has a green cap, though. Mario might also be with a young woman who has blond hair and wears a pink dress. She may look like a sweet and gentle princess, but don't ever let her appearance fool you! She's just as evil as Mario." Bowser lied.

"Thanks. That should be enough." Sonic turned to face Tails and Knuckles. "Alright, guys. It's time for us to go on another adventure!" he cheerfully exclaimed.

The hedgehog ran away with his incredible speed while the fox and the echidna were following him. Bowser looked at them running away while smirking evilly. One thing neither the dragon nor the Mobians knew was that someone was hiding in some nearby bushes at the moment. That someone listened to the whole conversation with no one ever noticing him.

"So… The Chaos Emeralds are being searched again, along with those Star Spirits… If someone's going to get the emeralds and the stars, it will be me." The mysterious individual said to himself.

That person left the bushes, disappearing in a nearby forest. Bowser turned around and looked at the bushes, thinking he heard something. He checked the bushes and saw nothing at all. The dragon shrugged, thinking it was just the wind moving the bushes around.

End of chapter.

Mario and his friends are on their way of finding the Star Spirits and the Chaos Emeralds, without even knowing they were mixed together. Sonic and his friends are also on their way to find the same things. And it's only the beginning…

Bowser's fake name, 'King Augustus', is a reference to an episode of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show", titled "The Great Gladiator Gig". Eggman's fake name, 'Dr. Allen' , was just a name I choose at random. Also, lots of power-ups from "Super Mario Bros. 3" made an appearance here: the Hammer Brother suit, the Raccoon suit and the Frog suit.

I won't reveal who was that mysterious individual in the bushes. Guess all you want, but I won't reveal it until the right moment in the story.

Read and review!


	3. The First Star Emerald

Sorry for the LONG wait. After several months, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 3: The First Star Emerald

Some hours passed ever since Mario, Luigi and Peach met Dr. Eggman. The trio was on its way to find the Star Emeralds.

"Hey, Mario. May I ask you a question?" Luigi asked.

"Sure, bro." Mario replied.

"Well, how do you think we should-a be able to find these emeralds? So far, we haven't-a come across any of-a them. Plus, our world is-a much-a different now that it's-a mixed with this other world-a called Mobius."

"I know, Luigi. But I've just got an idea. We're-a gonna see Professor Elvin Gadd. He certainly can-a build us-a something that can detect these emeralds." Mario said.

"That seems like a good idea, Mario." Peach said. She then thought about something. "But where could Gadd be? Like Luigi said, our world is much different now. His house could be anywhere in the world."

"Yeah, I know. It won't-a be easy. We'll-a just-a travel and see if anything could help us find his-a house. And besides, I doubt that Sonic could be able to find all the emeralds while-a we search-a for Gadd." The red plumber replied.

"Speaking of-a which, what do you think of-a this-a Sonic, bro?" Luigi asked.

"Well, I haven't-a met him yet. But if what that scientist-a told us is-a true, then we'll have-a to be careful if we come across that hedgehog."

The plumber and his friends then stopped when they noticed a huge loop-de-loop in front of them, like one of those they saw earlier. The loop-de-loop was above a river, allowing one person to go from one side of the river to the other. Between the heroes and the loop-de-loop was another panel with an arrow on it, identical to the one Luigi stepped on earlier.

"Oh, no! Not one of-a those-a things again!" the green plumber complained.

Mario looked back and forth between the loop-de-loop and the panel. He got an idea of what he could do.

"Let's see..." he said to himself.

The plumber ran towards the panel. As soon as he stepped on it, he was running faster in direction of the loop-de-loop. Much to his and his friends' amazement, Mario was able to run upside down briefly on the loop-de-loop. Soon, he arrived on the other end of the loop-de-loop, on the other side of the river. Mario stopped running and looked back at his friends, still on the opposite side.

"Come on, you two! It's-a both-a fun and easy enough!" he said to his friends.

"Well, I have to try this." Peach shrugged.

The princess grabbed her dress and held it with her hands, just so she wouldn't trip on her own dress while running. She then ran towards the panel and ran as fast as Mario did. Peach arrived on the other side, excited as she arrived next to the plumber.

"That was incredible, Mario!" she said, gleefully giggling.

"Glad to see you liked it." Mario said, smiling. He then looked back on his brother, who was still on the opposite side. "Come on, Luigi! Your turn!"

Luigi was a bit nervous, remembering what happened when he stepped on the other panel. One thing the green plumber was unaware of was that somebody was looking at him right now. That somebody was hiding behind a tree, looking curiously at Mario's brother.

"Luigi?" that somebody wondered, recognizing him.

"Alright... Second try." The green plumber said to himself.

He then stepped on the panel. Just like earlier, Luigi was running fast. This time, he was able to run through the loop-de-loop and arrived near Mario and Peach. The green plumber stopped running and was able to avoid falling on his face like last time.

"You see, Luigi? You did it!" Mario cheered, while Luigi was amazed.

"Whoa! I can't-a believe I was able-a to do that! It was-a so great!" the green plumber exclaimed. "I never thought I would... AAAH!"

He yelped as something came from the loop-de-loop and bumped into him. Luigi was lying on his stomach, dazed from what bumped into him. As Mario and Peach took a look at whatever bumped into the green plumber, they realized it was someone they were familiar with. It was a green-skinned dinosaur with a big nose, blue eyes, white skin from his neck to the back of his tail and red scales on the back of his head. He also had a red saddle on his back and he was wearing orange boots. His name is Yoshi, one of Mario's closest friends.

"Yoshi!" Mario exclaimed with joy.

"Huh?" The dinosaur turned his head around and his eyes went wide with joy when he noticed his best friend. "Mario! I'm so glad to see you! You too, Peach!" he said while waving at the princess, who waved back at him. "By the way, have you seen Luigi? I thought I saw him running through this thing." Yoshi said while pointing at the loop-de-loop.

"You're-a sitting on-a me, Yoshi." Luigi said, sighing.

The dinosaur looked under him and yelped when he noticed the green plumber. Yoshi quickly got off his friend and helped him stand out.

"Sorry, Luigi. My bad." The dinosaur said, smiling sheepishly.

"Eh, don't-a worry about it."

"Yoshi, what-a were you doing-a here?" Mario asked.

"Well, I remember seeing some light covering the sky last night." Yoshi said, trying to remember what happened to him last night. "For some reason, I was unconscious right after. And then, this morning, I woke up in a field. But all of sudden, some robots appeared and tried to attack me! I had to fight them all, beating all of them. I think there were three or four robots. Anyway, I then saw all those rings, plus these things that make you run fast and all those other stuffs I've never seen in our world yet. I'm confused about all that."

"Let me tell you a little story about what happened since last night, Yoshi." Peach said.

After a few minutes of Peach telling what happened to them to Yoshi, the latter nodded.

"Got it. So, you guys want to find those Star Emeralds... Wait a second..." The dinosaur took something from a pocket and showed it to his friends. "Is that a Star Emerald?"

Mario, Luigi and Peach couldn't believe their eyes. Yoshi was holding an emerald with a star inside of it.

"Yoshi, where-a did you find it?" Luigi asked.

"Right after I woke up, I found this thing next to me. Oops! I forgot to mention that part earlier." Yoshi replied, sheepishly.

"Well, that's a great-a news, Yoshi!" Mario cheered. "One found, six-a to search."

"Oh! Can I help you guys? Please?" The dinosaur asked, making big eyes.

"Of-a course, you can!" Mario said, smiling to his green-skinned friend.

"Yeah!" Yoshi exclaimed with excitement, licking the red plumber's face with his long tongue. "I always enjoy going on adventures with you, Mario!"

"The feeling is-a mutual." The red plumber said. "Well, we gotta find a Star Emerald. Let's-a go!"

Luigi, Yoshi and Peach nodded before Mario left the place, with his three friends following him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles started their journey to find the Star Emeralds. The hedgehog and the echidna were running fast, with the fox using his tails to fly fast above them. Suddenly, Sonic remembered he still had the raccoon tail and jumped in the air to fly alongside Tails. The latter still had his Hammer Bros. outfit. As for Knuckles, he preferred to ditch the frog suit because he thought he looked too ridiculous with it. Besides, he was already a good swimmer, so he didn't need it.<p>

"I have to admit, it's pretty fun to fly without Tails, the Tornado or the use of the Chaos Emeralds to turn into Super Sonic." The hedgehog commented.

"Glad to see you know how it feels." Tails replied, smiling.

"By the way, I'm curious but aren't you a bit jealous that you're not flying, Knuckles?" Sonic asked to his red-furred friend.

"I don't need to fly, Sonic. Gliding is more than enough to me." Knuckles replied.

"I see. Also, what happened to your frog suit?"

"I ditched it earlier. I honestly don't want to ever wear it again."

"Aw, but you looked cute in it." Sonic said, smirking.

"Don't push my patience, Sonic." The echidna said, glaring at the hedgehog.

"I was just teasing, Knux."

"Sonic! Look out!" Tails exclaimed.

"Huh?"

Sonic didn't have the time to react as he accidentally crashed into a tree. The hit was hard enough to cause the hedgehog to lose his raccoon tail and ears. Sonic then fell down the tree. Tails yelped before flying towards his best friend. The fox grabbed the hedgehog in the nick of time. They soon landed gently on the ground. Knuckles arrived near them by gliding his way through. The three of them were standing a few feet away from the edge of a cliff.

"You're okay, Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, buddy. My face has now a bad memory of that tree, but I'm fine." The hedgehog replied.

"Well, never tease someone while flying for the first time." Knuckles said, smirking.

"Yeah, I guess I learned my lesson. Although I gotta ask, how are we gonna find the Star Emeralds? I love going on adventures, but it sure would be pretty bad to search in the wrong place." Sonic said.

"That's what I'm wondering. The emeralds could be anywhere on this fusion of two planets." Tails replied. "We're not by the fact they could be stuck in some Special Zone, like what happened several times before. However, Knuckles might be able to find them with his abilities. I mean, he can detect shards of the Master Emerald. He could find other types of emerald too."

"I'm flattered by that, Tails, but I'll be honest finding Chaos Emeralds isn't the same as finding shards of the Master Emerald." Knuckles commented. "They have a different type of energy that, while similar, isn't exactly the same. Plus, we're talking about STAR Emeralds, not CHAOS Emeralds. I might be able to find those emeralds, but it won't be the same as with the Master Emerald."

"I see." Tails said, rubbing his chin in thoughts.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find the Star Emeralds the good ol' fashioned way: simply by pure luck." Sonic said while flexing his legs.

At this moment though, Knuckles' ears twitched. He turned his head around, searching for something.

"Knuckles, are you alright?" Tails asked, noticing the echidna suddenly turning his head away.

"For some reason, I feel a strange energy." He replied.

The echidna went to the edge of the cliff and looked down. The hedgehog and the fox didn't waste any time as they soon joined their friend on the edge of the cliff. Looking down, all three of them were wide-eyed by what they saw.

Down the cliff, four individuals were walking on a path. One of them was a guy with a mustache, wearing blue overalls and a red cap. The second was a guy who looked like the first one, except he wore a green cap. The third one was a young woman with blond hair and a pink dress. The fourth one was a green reptile with a saddle on his back. Sonic and his friends had no trouble recognizing the first three.

"It's Mario and his gang, exactly as the king told us." Sonic said.

"And they're with some sort of lizard, too." Knuckles commented.

"I think that's a dinosaur." Tails said.

"Well, at least it's some sort of reptile." The echidna then noticed something in Mario's hands. "Mario's got one of the emeralds."

The hedgehog looked at the plumber's hand and noticed the Star Emerald as well. The blue-furred hero smirked.

"Well, it's time for me to do some butt-kicking here. I'll go down there. Stay there." Sonic said to his friends before quickly sliding down the cliff.

"Sonic, wait!" Tails exclaimed.

"Why does Sonic always have to jump into a fight before thinking of a strategy?" Knuckles asked to himself, sighing.

"Well, Knuckles, I have to admit you would have done the same thing." Tails commented.

"Huh... Well, it depends on what kind of opponent I have."

* * *

><p>Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach were walking on some path, with Mario looking at the Star Emerald that Yoshi found.<p>

"I have-a to say, it's-a quite-a fortunate that-a we found-a both-a Yoshi AND this emerald." The plumber commented.

"Yeah." Luigi said. "If only it was-a this easy to find-a the rest of-a the eme..."

Suddenly, the green plumber was interrupted when a blue blur went past them. Mario then yelped when he realized the emerald was gone. Turning to their right, the four heroes noticed someone standing next to a rock, holding the emerald in his hand. That someone was a blue-furred hedgehog, making Mario, Luigi and Peach stare at him in shock.

"Sonic!" the three of them exclaimed.

"Wait, you already know my name?" Sonic asked. "Well, I guess that means my reputation goes beyond my world." He said, smirking. "Who would have thought?"

"We know your reputation enough-a to know that-a you have-a to give us-a back this emerald-a now!" Mario exclaimed.

"Try to catch me and we'll see about that." The hedgehog said, still smirking before running away with his usual speed.

"Whoa! He's-a fast!" Luigi exclaimed, impressed by the hedgehog's speed.

The red plumber frowned before looking at Yoshi. Immediately, Mario jumped on the dinosaur's back, holding tight onto his saddle.

"Let's-a go, Yoshi!" Mario exclaimed.

"Alright!" Yoshi cheerfully said.

Quickly, the dinosaur ran after the hedgehog, carrying the plumber on his back.

* * *

><p>At this moment, Sonic ran as fast as he could with his incredible speed. After a long moment of doing that, he stopped and hid behind some bushes. The hedgehog looked around, seeing no sign of the plumber and his allies.<p>

"I think I was able to lose them. Man, that was too easy." Sonic said to himself.

He looked at the Star Emerald, noticing a star inside the emerald.

"So, this is what a Star Emerald looks like. Alright then. I'm sure we'll be able to find the rest. Better go find Tails and Knuckles."

The hedgehog soon ran away in one direction. Several seconds later, he accidentally ran into something as he was knocked back a few feet away. Sonic groaned as he stood up. He then noticed Mario and Yoshi, lying on their back. The two must have been what he ran into. The plumber and the dinosaur stood up, a bit dizzy. They then noticed the hedgehog.

"You!" Mario exclaimed at the hedgehog.

"Let me guess. You want the Star Emerald, right?" Sonic guessed.

"Exactly! Let's-a fight to decide who can-a keep the emerald."

"Sounds good to me." The hedgehog agreed.

Sonic then put the emerald next to a tree before coming back to where Mario and Yoshi were. The hedgehog then made a fighting stance, ready to fight.

"Back away, Yoshi. This is-a between-a me and him." The plumber said to his green-skinned friend.

"Okay, Mario. If you ever need help, just ask." The dinosaur nodded before walking away and sitting on a tree stump.

"Honestly, I don't want to brag, but you might need some help from the dinosaur." Sonic said, confident he's gonna win.

"We'll-a see." Mario said, confident he was gonna win as well.

The fight began as soon as Mario ran towards Sonic. The plumber jumped in the air and tried to punch the hedgehog as he landed down. The latter dodged to the side to avoid it. Sonic rolled around on himself, charging a Spin Dash. He launched himself towards the plumber. The latter turned around and didn't have much time to react as his opponent hit him fast. Mario landed on his stomach. He stood up as he groaned rubbing his nose.

"I have-a to admit... You're-a quite-a strong." Mario said to the hedgehog.

"Thanks. But you're not declaring forfeit yet, right?" Sonic asked.

"Nope."

"That's what I thought."

Mario took something from his pocket. It was a Fire Flower, the same type of flower Sonic used when he found the floating boxes. Holding the flower in his hand, Mario changed his appearance. He still looked the same, except his overalls were red, while his cap and shirt were white. Mario ran towards the hedgehog while throwing fireballs from his hands. Sonic tried as much as he could to avoid the fireballs. However, he accidentally got the last one, knocking him away. Sonic landed on his back.

Quickly, he stood up and continued his fight with the plumber. The hedgehog charged another Spin Dash before launching himself at his opponent. This time, however, Mario jumped over him, causing the blue-furred hero to miss his target. Sonic brake on his way and launched another Spin Dash at Mario. The latter avoided it as well by jumping. The hedgehog was getting tired of this as he launched another Spin Dash. Once again, the plumber jumped right before he could receive the Spin Dash.

However, this time, the hedgehog jumped in the air at the same time as Mario. Quickly, Sonic hit the plumber several times with his Homing Attack. The plumber fell down on the ground. The hits he received caused Mario to lose his fire power. As he stood up once again, the plumber narrowly avoided Sonic running into him. The hedgehog ran into him once again. This time, the red-wearing hero avoided it and quickly punched Sonic in the face. Because of that, the latter lose his balance and was sent sliding on the ground until he stopped near a tree.

"Go, Mario! Go!" Yoshi cheered from the tree stomp he was.

"This ain't over yet." Sonic said as he stood up again.

The blue-furred hero ran towards his opponent. Mario took his hammer from his pocket and used it to hit the hedgehog. The latter was dizzy after he received the hammer, rubbing his face in pain.

"Ouch! Where did you get that hammer from, anyway?" Sonic rhetorically asked.

"In a shop." Mario simply answered.

"Well, hope you don't mind if I borrow it." The hedgehog quickly said before grabbing the hammer from Mario's hands and throwing it away.

Furious, the plumber threw many punches at Sonic. The latter avoided them all without wasting much energy. The hedgehog then kicked the plumber several times. After a while, Sonic stopped kicking Mario. The latter was breathing heavily, a bit tired.

"You're sure you don't wanna give up?" Sonic asked.

"I can-a still going." Mario replied.

Without wasting any time, the plumber took something else from his pocket. It was a yellow star. Holding it, Mario was now shining brightly. Sonic arched an eyebrow at that.

"What the..."

The hedgehog was interrupted as Mario punched him, hitting him harder than usual. For the next moment, the plumber kept hitting Sonic while using the strength of the star. The blue-furred hero was feeling pain as he kept receiving all those star-powered hits. After a while, he was too tired as he fell on his stomach. Some seconds later, the power of the star wore off as Mario was no longer shining brightly.

The plumber smiled as he realized he just won the fight. He turned his head towards the Star Emerald. He grabbed it and held it in the air.

"Here we go!" he cheerfully exclaimed.

"Hurray for Mario!" Yoshi cheerfully exclaimed even more.

"Let's-a go, Yoshi! Luigi and-a Peach must-a be waiting-a for us." Mario said as he hopped on the dinosaur's saddle.

The dinosaur nodded before leaving with the plumber and the Star Emerald. Some seconds later, Tails and Knuckles arrived next to Sonic. The fox and the echidna were concerned by what just happened to the hedgehog.

"Sonic! Wake up!" Tails exclaimed.

The blue-furred hero slowly stood up, with some difficulty. The fox and the echidna helped him to stand up.

"Don't move too much, Sonic." Knuckles said. "Looks like you got a tough fight."

"You got that right, Knux." Sonic said, tired from the fight. "That Mario guy... He's not a beginner..."

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

We got our first fight between the two legendary heroes, with the plumber winning this round. The hedgehog will have to do better the next time he'll fight his opponent again. It'll take several chapters before they face each other again, but that's just the beginning.

Yoshi has been introduced. That's one thing I've been looking forward to since I've started this fic. Expect to see other Mario characters join Mario and the others. And yes, other Sonic characters will join Team Sonic too. In both cases, I won't tell which ones will appear.

Mario won this round. I knew I had to make a choice for who should win the first fight. I flipped a coin and it landed on "Head", which was Mario's side of the coin. For the Sonic fans, don't worry though. Sonic will have a chance to get his revenge later on, like I said before.

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	4. After The First Fight

Chapter 4: After The First Fight

Several minutes after he won against Sonic, Mario came back to where Luigi and Peach were by riding on Yoshi's back. The plumber jumped down from the dinosaur and proudly showed the Star Emerald to his friends.

"Great-a job, Mario!" Luigi cheered.

"I'm so proud of you." Peach said, clasping her hands together.

"Thank-a you, both of you." Mario said.

"You should have seen him in action, you guys." Yoshi said. "He taught such a lesson to that hedgehog. And he was able to do it on his own! Well, okay, he used a few power-ups, but it was still fantastic!"

"Mamma Mia!" Mario exclaimed as he slapped his forehead. "I forgot my hammer back-a there!" The plumber quickly gave the emerald to his brother before jumping back on the dinosaur's back. "Sorry, Yoshi, but we have-a to get my hammer back."

"Hang on to my saddle, Mario. Here we go!"

As fast as he could, Mario's green-skinned friend ran in direction to where the fight took place. They arrived, noticing the hammer back to where it was seen for the last time. The plumber sighed in relief when he noticed his hammer. He took it back and put it in his pocket. He then realized Sonic was no longer there.

"Hmm..." he said as he thought about it. "I have-a no idea where he is, but we should go."

The plumber went back on Yoshi's saddle and the two of them soon went back to see the former's brother and the princess.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends were heading towards some cave. At this moment, Tails and Knuckles were helping the hedgehog by holding his arms so he could stand up.<p>

"Guys, I told you. I'm fine." Sonic complained.

"Oh, yeah? If so, why don't you run as fast as you usually do?" Knuckles asked, with a slight annoyance in his voice.

"Hum, Knuckles..." Tails began to say.

"No, Tails. If he says he's fine, we should allow him to run on his own. Let's see if he can walk as usual."

"Okay then." The fox said, not wanting to get into an argument with the echidna.

Both of them stopped supporting the hedgehog. The latter smirked. He then ran as fast as he could. However, Tails and Knuckles noticed he was running like a normal human being would run, which is unlike the incredible speed Sonic was known for. The fox and the echidna shook their heads when they saw that.

"You see, guys?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. We see. We see you need some rest." Tails replied.

The hedgehog sighed when he heard that.

"Fine. I'll take some rest." He said, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Sonic, I know you don't like sitting around and doing nothing much, and you prefer living lots of excitement every second, but even you need to take a rest once in a while." Tails said.

"Tails' right, Sonic." Knuckles agreed. "What if Eggman or even that Mario guy appeared out of nowhere and you weren't feeling well enough to fight them? In fact, I'd bet Eggman would laugh hysterically and take that chance to take you down for good."

Sonic sighed after he heard that.

"I hate it when you're right and I'm wrong." The hedgehog said.

"Everyone's like that." Tails said.

"Okay then. I'll take a rest. But as soon as I'm feeling well, we'll immediately go back to find the Star Emeralds."

Tails and Knuckles nodded before they entered the cave along with Sonic.

"By the way, how did your fight with that guy named Mario went?" Knuckles asked.

"Well, for the most part, it went well. Even when he used power-ups, it still went well, even though he became harder. However, as soon as he used that shiny star of his, it pretty much went game over." The hedgehog explained.

"That means you'll have to find ways to avoid those power-ups he used if you ever fight him again." Tails commented. "Speaking of which, were those power-ups the same ones we found in those floating blocks?"

"I remember he used that fire flower. The rest, I don't remember seeing them in the blocks."

"Good thing to know."

* * *

><p>Back with Mario and his friends, the heroes were thinking of a way to find the Star Emeralds as well. They already found an idea how to do it. They decided to go find Professor Elvin Gadd, a scientist who was a friend of theirs.<p>

"So, we have to find Mr. Gadd and we'll be able to find the emeralds?" Yoshi asked.

"You got it right." Luigi said.

"So... How do we find him?"

"Simple. We travel around the world until-a we find him." The green plumber replied.

"Oh... Yeah, sounds like a good idea." Yoshi said happily.

"It's gonna take a while, though. The world is big. It could take us weeks, even months before we find him." Peach said.

"Maybe we could-a call him." Luigi suggested.

"Luigi, we would-a need a phone-a first." Mario pointed out.

"What about that phone booth over there?" his brother asked while pointing at something.

Mario, Yoshi and Peach looked at where Luigi was pointing at. Much to their surprise, a phone booth was there.

"Well, talk about-a being-a convenient." Mario commented.

"Allow me. I know his-a number." Luigi said.

The green plumber walked to the phone booth and entered it. A few minutes later, he came back to where his friends were.

"So? Did you manage to call him?" the princess asked.

"Yep. You won't-a believe-a what I'm-a gonna tell you. He managed-a to build a virtual-a map of-a the whole-a world in only a few hours, I described him where we were and he was able-a to locate us. He said-a we should head north and we'll-a be able-a to reach-a his-a house in only a few hours-a or so." Luigi explained.

"Great! Let's-a go!" Mario cheerfully said before heading north, followed by his friends.

About two hours later, the heroes arrived next to a little house. The house was made of wood, taking place inside of a deserted and sinister-looking forest. It was also set next to a huge mansion, one familiar to the heroes.

"Oh, this place always reminds-a me of-a bad memories." Luigi said, shuddering as he remembered when he came into that mansion for the first time.

"You always-a say that-a whenever-a we come here." Mario said before knocking on the little house's door.

"Including that one time when we raced through your mansion for the Mario Kart championship." Yoshi added.

"Still doesn't-a make it any less frightening." Luigi said.

A few seconds later, the door was opened. The one opening it was an old man. He was bald, with a long strand of white hair standing up on his head. He was also wearing a red shirt, a white lab coat, black pants and brown shoes. The old man also had a single teeth and a pair of glasses with swirls on it. His name is Elvin Gadd, an old friend of the heroes, particularly of Luigi.

"Who is it?" the old man asked before adjusting his glasses. He then looked surprised when he recognized the heroes. "Luigi! I'm glad to see you. I'm also glad to see the rest of your friends."

"Hi, Professor." The green plumber said as he waved at the old man.

"Professor, we need your help." Peach said.

"Sure. I can help you!" Gadd replied, sounding enthusiastic. "But... what I can do for you?"

"Well, we're-a looking-a for a bunch of-a Star Emeralds, but we don't-a know where to look-a for them." Mario explained.

"I see. Hum..." Gadd pondered about what he can do for them. He then thought about something. "Say... Do you have one of these Star Emeralds on you?"

"Yes, we do." Mario replied, showing their emerald to him.

"Well, in that case, I might have just the thing you need! Just enter my house and close the door. I'll be back in a moment."

The old man motioned them to enter his house. Being the last one to enter, Yoshi was the one to close the door. The house was filled with lots of machines and other stuffs you can find in a laboratory. There was also a ladder, leading to the basement. Gadd was now looking through some of the inventions he created, searching for something. He then looked pleased when he found one invention in particular.

"Ah! There it is!"

The scientist took some device, which looked like some portable radar.

"What is it?" the princess asked.

"This is a Matter Searching Device. When you scan one matter in particular, it can help you find other sample of that matter. This should be enough to find those emeralds you're looking for." Gadd explained.

"Gee, thanks a lot, Professor!" Luigi congratulated.

"It's always my pleasure to help friends of mine."

"By the way, unless it's-a too much asking, can we sleep here?" Mario asked. "The night is-a coming and we can't-a travel by night if we're-a tired."

"Well, the thing is I only have two beds. One for myself and one for the guests. Although the bed for the guests might be fitting enough if none of you are too large." Gadd replied.

"I'm-a sure we'll-a find a way." Luigi said.

Several minutes later, it turned out all four heroes were able to share the guest bed. However, it was pretty tight and Yoshi had to sleep at the end of the bed, taking a position similar to a dog. The dinosaur didn't mind it, as it was still comfortable. It was at least more comfortable than his three friends, who all felt like they were canned fish.

"Good night, everyone!" Yoshi said before closing his eyes.

"Good night, Yoshi." His three friends said, trying all their best to sleep comfortably.

* * *

><p>Tails and Knuckles were sleeping inside the cave, resting their back against the wall. Sonic on the other hand, was sitting in front of the cave. The hedgehog didn't feel like sleeping at the moment, so he decided to spend a moment looking at the sky. The blue-furred hero kept thinking about the fight he had against Mario. He actually wasn't expecting much from the plumber, but after the fight, the hedgehog had to admit he had enough great abilities to be a real threat. Sonic sighed.<p>

"It's not the first time I lose to someone, but... I have the feeling we're gonna be in big trouble if I don't something about this guy." He said to himself.

Sonic continued to look at the sky. Just like how he was used to, the stars are filling the sky. The hedgehog was still amazed his world was mixed with another. He has seen a lot of strange stuffs in previous adventure, but this is one thing he would say was far from being just like a day in the park. He has been in space sometimes before, maybe even going on some other planets, but seeing parts from another world being mixed with his made him wondered what other worlds there was in the universe. Then, Sonic realized something. If he didn't stop Mario from taking over the world, who's not to say he might take over other worlds too? The hedgehog clenched his fists as he knew what to do. He had to get stronger so that next time the plumber wouldn't be able to get away with the next emerald and all the following ones. Sonic nodded to himself before standing up, about to go back inside the cave.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Instantly, Sonic turned around. He looked everywhere, searching for where that scream came from. The hedgehog looked back inside the cave. Tails and Knuckles were still sleeping there. Seeing how they seemed to sleep well, the hedgehog decided to not wake up his friends and looked back to the forest.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

The hedgehog knew it was a woman screaming. Well, either that or a guy screaming with a high-pitched voice. Anyway, Sonic quickly ran fast, going towards where he heard the scream coming. After a few seconds of running fast, the hedgehog arrived next to a path. Once again, he heard someone screaming. Sonic turned to his right and noticed someone coming, running in panic. The hedgehog looked at that someone coming. It was a pink-furred female hedgehog with green eyes and three strands of hair on her forehead. She was wearing a red dress, white gloves with yellow wrists, and red boots with a white strand on it. Sonic arched an eyebrow as he recognized that female hedgehog.

"Amy?"

"I'm said I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" Amy screamed.

Sonic was a bit confused about what she said until he noticed something charging towards the pink hedgehog. It looked like some giant caterpillar. That caterpillar was entirely red, with white eyes that made it look extremely angry. In the Mushroom World, this was a creature known as a Wiggler. Usually, Wigglers are yellowish and peaceful until they get hurt, in which case they become red and furious like you wouldn't believe. Seeing Amy being chased by this creature, Sonic sighed.

"I guess that's my cue." He said to himself.

Instantly, the blue hedgehog ran after them. Several seconds later, he arrived in front of the Wiggler, running alongside the pink hedgehog.

"Hey, Amy! Need some help?" Sonic rhetorically asked, smirking.

"Sonic!" she exclaimed when she noticed him.

Quickly, the blue hedgehog grabbed the pink one in his arms and ran faster. The Wiggler was still chasing after them. Sonic continued to run until he arrived at the edge of a small hill. He turned around to look at the Wiggler coming closer to them.

"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Just wait and see." He replied, smirking again.

Some seconds later, the Wiggler leapt at the hedgehogs. Instantly, Sonic ran away, causing the Wiggler to miss its target and fall down the hill. It hit the ground, falling unconscious. Sonic looked at the large creature being knocked out before putting Amy on the ground. As soon as he did that, the pink hedgehog jumped on the blue hedgehog, giving him a big hug.

"Oh, Sonic! I'm so glad to be reunited with my knight in shining armor!" she exclaimed with joy.

"Need... some... air!" the blue hedgehog exclaimed, as he was having a hard time breathing because of how tight Amy's hug was.

Realizing what he just said, the pink hedgehog let go of him, allowing Sonic to breathe normally.

"Oops! Sorry, Sonic." She said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to do any harm to my boyfriend, after all."

"Hum, we're not a couple, Amy." Sonic pointed out.

"I know, but I'm sure at some point you'll realize just how wonderful it is to have someone who cares for you as more than just a friend and you'll reciprocate those feelings with that someone." She said enthusiastically, with her mind filled with romance.

"Sure, if you say so." He said, not caring much about romance and such.

Sonic wasn't really someone who would look for love. Having a girlfriend wasn't something he needed, nor did he want to have. The hedgehog already had a lot of stuff he was glad to have. He had great friends he can count on, he was constantly having adventures and pretty much everyone he ever helped was always grateful of his actions. He wasn't ready for a romance at this point. Sonic might consider getting a girlfriend in the future, but at this point in his life it was far from being in his mind. He also always found it annoying whenever Amy would try something to convince him to become her boyfriend. Sonic simply didn't reciprocate those feelings she had for him. However, that doesn't mean he hated her or anything else like that. If anything, the blue hedgehog would always consider the pink hedgehog to be one of his closest friends and he was glad to have met her in his life, despite how annoying her romance stuff can be.

"So, why was that caterpillar chasing after you?" Sonic asked her.

"Well, it all started this morning." Amy replied. "When I woke up then, I realized the whole place I slept in was different from I fell asleep last night. It was as if like I entered a different world. I've seen all these floating blocks with question marks on it, all these mushrooms... I had no idea where I was. So, for the whole day, I've pretty much traveled around, trying to find something that would help me know what was going on. When it was nighttime, I was walking around this forest, having no clue where to go. So, I decided to climb up a tree and have a better view of where I was. Unfortunately, as I was climbing up, I stepped on a branch that immediately broke, causing me to fall down the tree. Fortunately, I landed on something soft enough so I wouldn't get hurt. But unfortunately, it was that huge caterpillar. It looked so furious! I tried to reason with it, but it wouldn't reason with me. It got to the point I used my Piko Piko Hammer against it. However, it had no effect on him! I've then decided to run away, but that creature kept chasing me. Some minutes, you arrived, running next to me. You already know what happened next."

"I see. Well, good thing it won't bother us now." Sonic commented.

"Yeah, that's a relief. So, what were YOU doing in this forest?" Amy asked, her eyes filled with curiosity.

The blue hedgehog yawned a bit at this moment.

"I would tell you everything, but I think I need some sleep. Tails and Knuckles are sleeping inside a nearby cave. I should go back there."

"Wait... Are you guys going on another adventure?" she asked, suspicious.

"Well... Hum..."

"I knew it! You guys are going on another adventure!" Amy exclaimed. "Can I come with you?"

"Hum..." he yawned once again. "Look, we're gonna go sleeping. Tomorrow, when the guys will be awake, we'll decide if you can join us. Is that clear?"

"No problem!" she said enthusiastically.

With that said, Sonic and Amy walked back to where the cave was, getting ready to sleep with their friends.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Mario and his friends were able to find a way to get the other emeralds. In the case of Sonic and his friends, the blue hedgehog came across Amy, who wants to join them for the adventure. Let's see how well both teams do when they'll continue their adventure the next day.

I wanted to add a fight for another emerald, but I figured I already had enough things in this chapter. You'll see another fight in the next chapter, though.

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	5. The Strongest on the Island

Chapter 5: The Strongest on the Island

The next morning, Knuckles slowly woke up in the cave, having sleep well the previous night. He yawned a bit while stretching his arms. He then looked around, noticing Tails sleeping next to the same wall the echidna slept next to. Knuckles looked on the opposite wall. He saw Sonic sleeping next to that wall. However, the echidna was caught by surprised when he noticed someone else next to Sonic. Amy Rose was present, sleeping in the arms of the blue hedgehog. Knuckles was confused as to why Amy was there. However, he smirked when he thought about how Sonic will react when he'll wake up and notice Amy sleeping close to him. He then got an idea.

"Hey, Tails... Tails, wake up." Knuckles gently said to the fox, slightly nudging him.

Slowly, Tails opened his eyes. He yawned a bit before looking at the echidna. The fox looked a bit tired.

"Good morning, Knuckles. Did I oversleep?" he asked.

"Nah. Sorry to wake you up. But just take a look there."

The echidna pointed to the opposite wall. Slightly confused, Tails looked to where Knuckles was pointing at. Instantly, his eyes widened when he noticed the pink hedgehog.

"Am..."

Quickly, the echidna covered Tails' mouth with his hand.

"Don't wake them up. I wanna see Sonic's reaction when he'll realize Amy is sleeping that close to him." He whispered.

After Knuckles removed his hand from Tails' mouth, the latter smirked at his red-furred friend.

"Always there to take some laugh out of Sonic, aren't you?"

"Heh, it's just fun to see him embarrassed for something." the echidna replied, smirking.

Tails and Knuckles waited several minutes to see their friends waking up. After a while, Sonic finally woke up, yawning for a moment. The hedgehog then noticed his friends, already awake.

"Hey, guys. Were you waiting for me?" he asked.

"Well, sorta." Knuckles said, smirking. "By the way, how well were you sleeping?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Sonic asked, arching an eyebrow.

He looked to his right and suddenly his eyes went wide when he noticed Amy sleeping his arms. Immediately, he yelped as he stood up, sighing in relief. Sonic then frowned at his friends.

"You guys were waiting to see that, weren't you?"

"Knuckles was the one who insisted, just so he wanted to see your reaction." Tails said.

"Totally worth it." The echidna said, smirking further.

"Yeah, admittedly, it was fun to see." The fox added. "Sorry, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog sighed before looking back at Amy, still sleeping. She must have put herself in his arms while he was sleeping. That's what the blue hedgehog thought at least.

"So, where does Amy come from?" Knuckles asked. "I don't recall meeting her yesterday."

"Okay, I'll try to make it as brief as possible. You guys were sleeping last night and I was sitting next to the cave's entrance, thinking about what happened yesterday. Then, I heard someone screaming. I ran around the trees and I found Amy being chased by some sort of giant caterpillar. I was able to save her from that creature. She then told me how she got lost and ended up being chased by it. After that, she was able to figure out I was on an adventure with you guys. She wants to join us, but I told her to wait until this morning so that we can all decide whether or not she can come with us. And that's about it." Sonic explained.

"I see." Tails said. "Personally, I don't mind her coming with us. She can help us find the emeralds. Plus, with her hammer, I think she can do well against any enemies we come across."

"I don't know." Knuckles said, feeling hesitant about it. "She seems to be the type to become a damsel in distress. I mean, how many times did Sonic save her life so far?"

"Well, there was that time with Metal Sonic." Sonic said, remembering some events related to that. "Plus that time with the green robot when Eggman used Chaos. Also that time on Prison Island and when Eggman took her as a hostage on the Ark so he can get the one Chaos Emerald we got, although Tails was the one to save her during those two events. I'd say at least four times she had to be saved."

"Yeah, but she was helpful when Metal Sonic attacked last time. Her and the rest of Team Rose were as helpful as Team Dark and Team Chaotix." Tails pointed out.

"True." Sonic admitted.

"I'm still not sure. She can be rather bossy too at times. I remember when I came across you guys while I was searching for the shards of the Master Emerald and she tried to force me out of the sewer hole I came from." Knuckles said.

"She's not THAT bossy. She can be sometimes, but not all the time. Plus, she once mentioned how she managed to convince Shadow to help us stop the Ark from hitting our planet." Tails said.

"Heh..." the echidna shrugged. "Let's give it a try. The more I think about it, the more I think we'll end up wasting our time arguing with her when she'll wake up if we refuse her, so... Yeah, she can join us."

"It's fine by me, too." The fox said.

"Alright then." Sonic said, sighing a bit.

It took a few more minutes, but Amy finally awoke. She sat up, stretching her arms while yawning. She then noticed her friends, all three of them awake.

"Oh! Hi, boys! How are you doing?"

"We're fine, Amy." Tails said.

"Amy, while you were sleeping, I've talked with the guys and... Well, we decided to let you join us for the adventure." Sonic said.

The pink hedgehog gasped in excitement while clasping her hands together.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you very much!" she exclaimed joyfully before leaping onto Sonic's neck.

The blue hedgehog used all his strength to get her away from him, which he managed to do so.

"Okay, enough with that, Amy." The fast hero said.

Amy then arched an eyebrow when she looked back at Tails.

"Hum... Tails? Why are you wearing this?" she asked.

The fox looked at himself and realized he still had the Hammer Bro outfit on him.

"Oh! That's one of the power-ups we found after we woke up yesterday." He explained.

"Power-ups?"

"Yeah, we found them inside a bunch of floating blocks. Nothing was able to make me lose that power-up."

"And how do you lose that?"

"By getting hit." Knuckles replied. "Allow me to demonstrate."

"No, wait, Knuckles..." the fox began to say.

He was interrupted as the echidna punched him on the elbow. The fox fell on his back, losing his Hammer Bro outfit.

"Ouch! Knuckles!" Tails complained as he rubbed his elbow.

"Sorry, Tails. I was aching for some action for a while." Knuckles apologized, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "If it makes you feel better, I punched you on the elbow. It must be less painful than the face or the stomach."

"It makes me feel better knowing that, but not much." The fox said.

"By the way, what's your adventure all about this time?" Amy asked. "You still haven't told me that part."

In the following minutes, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles explained to Amy Mobius fused with another world called the Mushroom World. They had to find seven Star Emeralds before a guy named Mario and his allies find them. So far, Mario was able to get one.

"So, that's what it's all about? Well... Alright then!" she exclaimed, raising a fist while she was filled with excitement. "What are we waiting for? We've got a world to save and some Mario guy to beat!"

"That's the spirit." Sonic said, smirking at the pink hedgehog's excitement.

* * *

><p>That same morning, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach woke up at Gadd's house. They thanked the scientist before resuming their quest to find the Star Emeralds. With their portable radar named the Matter Searching Device, or the MSD, the heroes were on their way to find the next emerald.<p>

"So, what does it say?" Peach asked after Luigi scanned their emerald with the radar.

A few seconds later, the radar showed a map with a point indicating a location on some island.

"It says-a the closest-a Star Emerald is-a located on an island." The green plumber replied.

"Which island?" Yoshi asked.

"It doesn't-a say its-a name."

"It doesn't-a matter. We should-a just go in-a direction to this island and find that emerald." Mario said.

"How are we gonna do that?" Luigi asked. "The island is-a far away from us. It would take us a plane-a to go there-a without-a wasting-a too much-a time."

"Luigi has a point there." Peach agreed. "We don't know if there's an airport close to us and I doubt this radar would be able to find an airport for us."

At this moment, Yoshi's eyes widened as he seemed to remember something.

"Guys! I know where there's an airport!" The dinosaur exclaimed.

His three friends were surprised when they heard that. They looked at each other before looking back at the dinosaur.

"Are you sure, Yoshi?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure! Before I came across you guys yesterday, I came across an airport. Some guy was there, renting its planes. I didn't pay much attention to it because I was too busy either getting back home or at least coming across familiar faces."

"Can you lead us to that airport?" Mario asked.

"Yep!" Yoshi said, smiling at his friends.

"In that case, let's-a go!" Mario exclaimed, raising his fist in the air.

Right before they could leave, Yoshi turned his back to Peach and motioned her to sit on his saddle.

"Oh! Thank you, Yoshi." The princess replied, smiling at the dinosaur while she sat on his saddle.

In only a few seconds later, the four heroes left in direction to the airport.

"I gotta say, Yoshi, you're-a quite the lucky one." Luigi said. "You find an emerald, you get reunited-a with us, you're-a leading us to an airport you came across... Are you a luck-a magnet or what?"

"I don't know. Maybe." The dinosaur shrugged.

* * *

><p>Back with Sonic and his friends, the talking animals were following a path, hoping to find a clue about the next emerald's location.<p>

"Man, this is boring." Sonic said, yawning in boredom. "If only we could find something about it... It can get tiresome when you have no clue and you're searching for nothing."

"Don't worry, Sonic." Tails said. "I'm sure we'll find something soon enough."

"I'd like to believe you, buddy, but I can't help getting bored like that."

"I have to agree with Sonic." Amy said, looking bored as well. "Something interesting better happen soon, or else..."

"Quiet." Knuckles said to his friends.

"Huh? What's the matter, Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"I'm hearing footsteps." The echidna replied as he pointed to where he heard the footsteps. "We better hide and see if it's an enemy or an ally."

The others nodded as they all hide inside a few bushes. They observed as the ones making the footsteps appeared in sight. Sonic and his friends noticed Yoshi carrying Peach on his back. Mario and Luigi were following them close. All four of them went into a direction. As soon as they were far enough from Sonic and his friends, the latters appeared from the bushes.

"Mario!" Sonic exclaimed to himself. "I didn't think we would come across him so soon. Not that I'm complaining or anything." He said, smirking as he thought about facing the plumber again.

"I have the feeling they're onto something." Tails said, thoughtfully.

"You're right. They might have found the location of another emerald." Knuckles said.

"Oh, my gosh!" Amy exclaimed. "Have you seen that woman's dress? It looked so beautiful! It matches her eyes very well. Oh, I would LOVE to wear that pink dress!" she exclaimed, gushing about Peach's dress.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all arched an eyebrow at Amy.

"What?" she asked when she noticed the way they looked at her.

"How about we simply follow them and see what they're up to this time?" the blue hedgehog suggested, changing the subject.

The others nodded before all four discreetly followed the plumbers, the princess and the dinosaur.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Mario and his friends arrived next to some airport, as Yoshi indicated them. Peach hopped off of the dinosaur's saddle. The airport was desert, although filled with lots of planes to rent. Some guy was sitting at some booth, reading a book. The four heroes came nearby the booth, wanting to talk with the guy they thought was responsible for this place.<p>

"Excuse-a me, sir?" Mario said to the guy.

The latter looked at them and was surprised at their sight, especially when he looked at Yoshi and Peach.

"Are you guys going to a costume party?" the guy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Nope. Far from it." Luigi replied.

"We wanna use a plane-a to go on some island. Do you have a plane-a that can-a transport-a four persons?" Mario asked.

"I got one for ten persons." The guy in charge replied.

"Good!" the red plumber cheerfully exclaimed.

"However, none of our pilots are present today. So, unless one of you knows how to drive a plane..."

"Oh! I do."

"Well, then, here's the key." The guy said in a bored tone, giving the key to Mario. "You'll have to pay me, though."

"There. Will it be enough?" Mario asked as he gave five gold coins to the guy.

The latter picked all coins and looked at them in amazement.

"Are... Are these... made of... gold?" he asked, looking nervous.

"Sure. Why asking that?" Luigi said.

Instantly, the guy fell on his back. Luigi immediately went inside the booth and checked the guy's pulse.

"He's alright. Just unconscious, but he'll-a wake up in a few moments."

"That's a relief." Mario said. "Now, we have a plane-a to use."

At the same time, Sonic and his friends were listening, hiding behind some trees.

"Looks like the next emerald is on an island." Tails commented.

"But how are we gonna get to that island?" Amy wondered.

Tails pondered about it until he noticed one of the planes available to rent.

"I think I got an idea." The fox replied, smiling.

Some hours later, Mario and his friends were flying above the plane they rented. The red plumber was the one driving it. They were all hoping to see the island soon enough. All of sudden, Mario noticed something above the ocean through the windshield.

"Hey, is that the island?" he asked, causing Luigi to look at the MSD.

"According to the radar... Yep." Luigi replied.

"Finally! We're getting closer to the emerald." Peach cheered.

As they got closer, the island was easier to identify. It seemed like an island filled with lots of jungles. It also had some desert, ruins, glaciers, caves, forests, mines, valleys and such. Mario then noticed something odd about the island. It was shaped like the head of a gorilla.

"Wait a minute... I recognize-a that island."

Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach looked through the windshield, observing the island.

"Wait... Isn't that..." Peach began to say.

"I think it is." Mario replied. "We're-a getting-a closer... to Kongo Bongo Island."

"Oh, sweet! That means we're gonna meet DK again!" Yoshi said, excitedly.

"If we're-a lucky enough, he might have found the emerald already." The green plumber commented.

"Yeah, but on the other hand, the Kremlings-a might have got it first." Mario said.

"You mean-a those-a mean reptiles Donkey Kong told us about a few times?"

"Precisely. Who knows-a what would happen if-a King K. Rool, leader of-a the Kremlings, had the emerald first."

As the plumber was getting ready to land the plane on the island, neither him nor his friends were aware that another plane was following them. A certain two-tailed fox was driving that other plane, along with three other talking animals.

* * *

><p>After the plane landed on some beach, Mario and his crew headed towards the jungle, knowing this is where they'll find Donkey Kong's house. Soon enough, they came across a treehouse, with a few stairs leading up to its entrance. A cave was set underneath, which lead to a huge banana hoard.<p>

"Hey! DK! It's-a me, Mario! Luigi, Peach and-a Yoshi are here-a too." The red plumber shouted to the treehouse. "Are you there?"

There was no answer.

"Maybe he's not home." Peach said.

"Or maybe he's-a sleeping." Luigi commented.

"Let's see about that." The red plumber said as he went up the stairs.

Mario entered the treehouse, followed by his friends. They noticed the inside of the treehouse. There was a hammock hanging between two poles. A boombox was on top of a box. A few crates and barrels were lying around, along with two tires. Several banana peels were also scattered around the place. However, nobody was home.

"Hmm... I wonder where he went." Mario thought out loud.

"My gosh. Donkey Kong doesn't know how to clean up a room." Peach said, not liking the sight of all those banana peels lying around.

"Eh, as long as he gets-a to eat-a bananas, DK doesn't-a seem-a to care about- cleaning up his-a house." Luigi said, with an amused tone.

"WHO GOES THERE?!"

The heroes were startled by the yelling voice they just heard. They immediately turned around in panic. However, they sighed in relief when they recognized who just talked. It was a gorilla with brown fur and tan skin on his stomach, his mouth, his hands and his feet. He was wearing a red neck-tie with the initials 'DK' in yellow. His name is Donkey Kong, DK for short.

"Mamma Mia! It's-a DK!" Mario exclaimed with joy.

Looking angry at first, DK then looked in surprised when he realized he came across Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach.

"Huh? It's you, guys? Man, I'm glad to see you all!" the gorilla exclaimed, smiling widely.

Immediately, he grabbed all four of them and hugged them all in one big hug with his strong arms. DK then stopped hugging them, allowing them all to breath.

"I have to say. Even your hugs are strong." Peach said, catching her breath.

"Eh, sorry." DK said, scratching the back of his head. "By the way, sorry for yelling. I've heard noises coming from my treehouse while coming and I feared it would be Kremlings coming to steal my bananas again."

"No need to be sorry. We were the one to enter your house without your permission, so we should be the ones to be sorry." The princess said.

"Eh, it's okay. You're forgiven. You weren't doing anything bad to my house, were you?" the gorilla asked.

"Well, Peach complained about all the banana peels-a lying around, but I don't think-a complaining is-a something-a bad." Luigi said, causing Peach to roll her eyes.

"So, what are you guys doing here? Coming to visit?" DK asked.

"Actually, we're-a coming-a for something important." Mario replied.

In the following minutes, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Peach explained to DK the quest for the Star Emeralds they were going through, along with the whole 'worlds being fused together' thing that happened recently.

"Okay, but what does this have anything to do with me?" the gorilla asked.

"Well, our radar said one of the emeralds is on your island. Have you seen any of these?" Yoshi asked.

"Nope. Haven't seen any emeralds, Yoshi." DK replied.

"Oh..." the dinosaur said, disappointed like the others.

"Great. Now, we have-a to search on the island. Even-a with the radar, it's-a gonna take us a while." Luigi said, also in a disappointed tone.

"I've seen a diamond with a star inside of it, though." The gorilla added.

Everyone was taken by surprise at what the gorilla said.

"A diamond with a star inside of it?" Mario asked, repeating what the primate just said.

"Are you sure it wasn't an emerald?" Peach asked.

"Hum... Honestly, I'm not an expert on jewelry." DK replied, scratching the top of his head.

"Great!" Mario exclaimed. "Do you remember where you saw it?"

"Hum... Yeah, I know the place." The gorilla nodded.

"Alright! Let's-a see that!"

Mario grabbed the radar from the plumber and made his way towards the door, followed by DK. Just as the other three were about to follow them, the gorilla stopped in his tracks and motioned them to stop walking.

"Hold on. You guys stay here and look for my banana hoard until we come back."

"Fine." Luigi sighed.

"Good!" DK smiled before continuing with Mario.

"Hmm... This is-a gonna be boring." Luigi said. "Watching a bunch of-a bananas... Really? This is-a what we're-a doing instead of-a traveling in the jungle?"

"I've heard there were giant bees in this jungle." Peach commented.

"Giant b-b-b-bees?" Luigi nervously asked. "Mamma Mia!" He exclaimed as he jumped on DK's hammock and hang onto it in fear.

Peach couldn't help but giggle at the sight of the green plumber being so scared.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends already arrived on Kongo Bongo Island. Tails had landed the plane between a forest and a river. The four of them were out of the plane at that moment.<p>

"Okay, so does anyone have any suggestion how to do that?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"Let's split up. We should explore the island and see if we can find anything." The fox said.

"Good idea, Tails." Amy said. "You and Knuckles will search on the North side of this island, while Sonic and I will search on the South side." She said, looking lovingly at Sonic and immediately holding his arm.

"Hum... I was thinking about splitting in four, not in teams of two."

"That's good enough for me." Sonic said as he removed his arm from Amy's hold, making the pink hedgehog sigh in annoyance.

The four agreed to split up. Sonic went into some forest, Tails into some ruins, Knuckles into some jungle, and Amy into the beach.

* * *

><p>A while later, the echidna was still in the jungle, looking for the emerald.<p>

"I may not be able to find it as well as the shards of the Master Emerald, but I'll eventually find the emerald on this island." He said to himself.

Knuckles then arrived on some path leading to a bridge. As the echidna walked through that bridge, he saw something shiny on the other side of it. Taking a quicker pace, the guardian arrived on the other side. He noticed the shiny thing at the bottom of a tree. Kneeling down, the echidna got his suspicions confirmed when he realized it was an emerald with a star inside of it. He smirked while grabbing the emerald.

"That's just my lucky day." He said to himself.

"Hey! You!"

Knuckles turned around when he heard someone shouting that. He saw Mario on the other side of the bridge, along with a gorilla wearing a necktie.

"Am I the one you're talking to?" Knuckles rhetorically asked.

"Yeah! I'm the one you're talking to!" DK then realized what he just said and groaned before correcting himself. "I mean... Yeah! You're the one I'm talking to! Give me that diamond back!"

"It's an emerald, remember." Mario pointed to DK, causing the latter to groan again.

"Let me think about that." The echidna said before pretending to think about it. "No." he replied before running away with the emerald.

"Come back here!" the gorilla exclaimed before running through the bridge, with Mario following him.

The echidna kept running until he noticed a tree of average size. Knuckles got an idea as before climbing up the tree. He arrived on top of it, making sure the leafs would disguise his presence. The guardian saw the primate running past him. His human friend then appeared. Knuckles took this time to make his idea come true. The echidna jumped down the tree and glide towards the plumber. Mario barely had time to react as Knuckles punched him hard in the face, sending him into a nearby rock. The plumber was knocked out before landing on his stomach.

"One point for Knuckles." The echidna said before removing all the leaves on his body.

"Oh, I see! You think you're so though and all that!" he turned his head to his left to see DK standing nearby, glaring at the echidna. "You're not so tough, at least when compared to me. You were able to knock Mario out, but there's no way you'll be so lucky against me!" he said while slamming his hands into the ground.

"Say, what's your name?" Knuckles asked. "I like to know my opponent's name before I beat him enough to send him to a hospital. I'm Knuckles, by the way."

"And I'm Donkey Kong. By the way, YOU'RE gonna be the one sent to a hospital!" the gorilla replied.

"We'll see about that." The echidna said, getting into a fighting stance.

Knuckles ran towards DK. The latter waited for the echidna to come nearby. Then, the gorilla threw his fist hard enough at the echidna, sending him fly a few feet away from him. The latter sat up, groaning at what he just received.

"Geez! I knew gorillas were strong, but man!" he complained. "He'll be surprised by my strength, though."

The echidna ran back towards the gorilla before jumping and gliding his way towards his opponent. Said opponent wasn't impressed as he tried to punch the echidna again. However, Knuckles managed to avoid the punch by gliding to his left. The echidna arrived behind DK and kicked him on the back. The primate lost his balance and fell on his stomach. Angry by that, the gorilla didn't lose time and swing his arms around, spinning like a helicopter.

Knuckles was hit several times in a row by that. He was a bit dazed by that, but he quickly came back to his senses. The echidna ran back at the gorilla. However, Donkey Kong managed to grab Knuckles and held him in the air. The primate then swung his arm around before throwing his opponent towards a nearby cave. The echidna hit a wall before landing on the ground. He saw a minecart on some rail nearby. Knuckles rested on the minecart to feel better.

"Banana slama!"

"Huh?" the echidna said confused.

As he turned his head around, he immediately received a punch, sending him into the minecart. Proud of his punch, Donkey Kong then jumped into the minecart as well. Suddenly, this caused the minecart to move, eventually making its way on the rail. The opponents were now riding the minecart inside the mine. That didn't stop the fight as the two of them were still fighting. Knuckles punched the gorilla's jaw. The latter rubbed his jaw in pain. He glared at the echidna before trying another punch.

Fortunately for Knuckles, he was able to avoid it by ducking, which was then followed by the echidna punching DK in the stomach. The two kept punching each other that way until they noticed a large gap on the rail. The opponents gasped as they grabbed each side of the minecart and made it jump over the rail. All of sudden, they saw several other gaps coming. As much as they could, the gorilla and the echidna managed to jump over all these gaps. They sighed in relief when they jumped over the last one. The minecart then arrived to a stop, abruptly sending the opponents out of it.

When they landed on the ground, DK and Knuckles managed to stand up. They both smirked at each other before resuming the fight. The gorilla ran towards the echidna and tried to punch him. All of sudden, the guardian dug a hole into the ground and disappeared into it. DK was confused by that. Suddenly, the echidna came from the ground through another hole behind the gorilla and jumped on his opponent. Knuckles grabbed onto the gorilla's back. The latter tried to remove the echidna from his back, but the latter held onto it.

"Get out of my back!" DK yelled in annoyance.

"Alright, since you asked." The guardian replied, smirking.

Knuckles jumped down from the gorilla's back. As soon as the latter turned around, the former hit him hard in the stomach with a punch. Before the primate could counterattack, his opponent used his legs to hit his own, making him lose his balance. DK stood up, getting a little bit tired by this fight. However, as much tired as he was, he wasn't willing to give up. The gorilla charged towards the echidna and punched him again, in which case Knuckles wasn't able to avoid it this time. He was sent flying against a tree.

The echidna wasn't done yet. He waited for the gorilla to charge at him again. DK did charge again, screaming in rage. Just as the primate sent a punch to the echidna, the latter ducked and instantly punched the gorilla in the face with all his strength. The primate fell on his back. He tried to stand up once again, but he groaned, falling unconscious. Knuckles caught his breath after this fight. He then smirked as he just realized he won his fight.

"And the winner is..." the echidna said as he looked at the emerald he had in his pocket.

Knuckles then ran away, ready to get reunited with his friends.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

One emerald for Sonic and his friends, after a fight with Donkey Kong. Let's see how the heroes will do next time they'll come across another emerald.

The chapter was a bit long, but I've tried to make it as short as possible without having to cut it into two chapters.

Read and review!


	6. Mermaid Melee

I've got no plans to have Diddy join Mario and his team in this fanfic, Guest. I might do that in the sequel, but even then, nothing is set in stone.

Chapter 6: Mermaid Melee

Back at the beach, Sonic, Tails, and Amy were back near where the plane they rented was. All three of them were done from research, having found nothing.

"So, you guys haven't found anything on this island?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"No. Nothing at all." The fox replied.

"Me neither." The pink hedgehog replied.

"Well, that makes us three. Let's hope Knuckles had more success." Sonic commented.

"Guys, I'm back!" A familiar voice yelled behind them.

"Right on cue..." Sonic said, smirking.

All three of them turned around to see Knuckles arriving next to them, catching his breath right after.

"Are you alright, Knuckles? Amy asked. "You seem tired."

"Just got back from fighting a gorilla, that's all." The echidna replied.

"Why? Because you stole his banana and he got angry?" Sonic asked, smirking.

"Not that. He was walking with Mario. I assume they were friends. Anyway, I found the Star Emerald, they chased after me, I surprised Mario while knocking him out, then that gorilla was really furious and we started a fight. At the end, though, I was able to beat him and here's the prize." Knuckles said as he showed his Star Emerald to the rest of his friends.

They looked at it in marvel. Sonic then thought about something.

"Wait, you were able to knock Mario out?" the hedgehog asked.

"Yep."

"Mind giving me some advice how to do that? That'd be helpful for the next time I fight him."

"Okay, but we should get going back in the plane first. Mario and his allies might come here anytime."

They agreed before going back inside the plane they rented. A few minutes later, the plane was flying in the sky, piloted by Tails.

* * *

><p>Back with Mario, the plumber slowly woke up from where he was. He sat on the ground, groaning a little bit.<p>

"Mamma Mia... I feel like I received a rock in-a the face." He said, rubbing said face.

"Mario!"

The plumber looked up and noticed Luigi, Yoshi and Peach running up to him.

"Oh, my goodness!" Peach exclaimed when she saw Mario. "What happened to you, Mario?"

"I wish I could-a know. Everything-a went-a so fast. All I remember-a was-a DK leading-a me to the emerald. Then, some red echidna already claimed it. We chased after him. And then... that's-a where-a my memory is-a missing." The plumber replied. "By the way, what are you guys doing here?"

"DK and you were gone for a while. We feared something bad might have happened. And it looks like it is the case." Luigi explained. He then remembered something else. "Wait a minute... Didn't that doctor told us Sonic might be working with a red-furred echidna?"

"Yeah. I think he said that." The princess said. "I think he also said Sonic was allied with a fox who had two tails."

"If-a that red echidna is indeed-a working-a with Sonic and was able-a to get away with the emerald, that means-a the hedgehog was able-a to get-a that emerald." Mario said as he stood up.

"Hey! Where's DK?" Yoshi asked, realizing the gorilla wasn't present.

"He probably chased after that echidna. He's our only hope-a now." The red plumber commented, hoping the primate was able to get the emerald from the echidna.

"Man. What a fight..."

Everyone turned around to see Donkey Kong coming from a nearby cave. The gorilla looked exhausted.

"DK!" Mario exclaimed as he ran up to his strong friend and held his right arm to help him standing up. "What happened to you, big guy?"

"That echidna... I tried getting the diamond back from him." DK replied.

"Emerald." Luigi corrected.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot. Anyway, we ended up fighting each other. And at the end... I hate to admit it, but he defeated me." He said, looking ashamed of what happened.

"Oh... Sorry to hear that." Mario said, feeling bad for the gorilla. "Listen... Are you completely fine now or are you still-a feeling-a pain after that fight?"

"Honestly... I need some bananas to feel better."

Mario nodded to that. Still holding the ape's arm, the red plumber helped DK to go back to his treehouse. Luigi soon came to help too, holding the left arm. Yoshi and Peach followed them. The dinosaur offered the princess to ride on him. She declined politely, not wanting to abuse his help.

A few minutes later, all five of them were back at DK's treehouse. Sitting on a tire, the gorilla was enthusiastically eating lots of bananas. He was even eating several at the same time. Mario, Luigi, and Peach were taken by surprise that. Yoshi, on the other hand, licked his mouth at the sight of some bananas. The gorilla noticed the dinosaur's look and handed a banana to him. The dinosaur smiled and instantly ate the banana right after grabbing it with his tongue. After eating it, Yoshi gave a thumbs up to the gorilla, causing the latter to smirk.

"Feeling better?" Peach asked to the ape.

Standing up from the tire, DK stretched himself, making some poses.

"Yep! Extremely better!" he replied. "So, are you guys leaving now?"

"Yep. Gotta find the emeralds as soon as possible." Luigi replied.

"Okay then. Goodbye to all of you." The gorilla said, waving his hand at them.

They waved back at them before heading towards the door. One by one, they exited the treehouse. Mario was the last one to go through the door. Suddenly, he stopped on his tracks before looking behind him. He noticed DK, still sitting on the rubber tire. However, the gorilla looked down, looking sad. The plumber couldn't help but feeling concerned about the ape. Without hesitation, he walked towards the gorilla and stood in front of him.

"Hey, big guy. Is there-a something wrong?" Mario asked.

"Huh?" DK looked up and noticed the plumber in front of him. "Oh. Nothing. I'm fine and all. It's just..."

"What?"

"Well... I feel bad for letting that echidna get away with the emerald. I wish I could have prevented that." He finally admitted.

"Oh, don't-a feel bad about-a that. You've done already enough of a good-a work-a today. Don't-a feel like you were-a useless or anything-a like-a that... Because you weren't useless." Mario said, trying to comfort DK.

"Thanks for the kind words. Still, I feel guilty about it. Especially after that time I stole those Mini-Marios from you. Lately, I feel like I was more of an hindrance to you." He said before looking down.

"Oh, don't-a worry about the Mini-Marios. It's all-a forgiven." The plumber said, smiling at the gorilla. All of sudden, Mario got an idea. "You know what? If you don't have anything else-a better to do, you could join us on our adventure."

DK looked up at the plumber when he heard that.

"Are you serious?"

"Absolutely. I wouldn't lie to a friend." Mario replied.

Slowly, the gorilla stood up and stared at the plumber. A few seconds later, he grinned and put his hands on Mario's shoulder.

"I'm glad to have you as a friend."

"So do I." the plumber said as he winked at DK. "Let's go join the others."

Without wasting much time, the plumber and the gorilla exited the treehouse and reunited with Luigi, Yoshi and Peach. All five of them then went inside the plane they had rented. Mario was the one driving the plane. All of sudden, he noticed something down below. On a small island, a plane had crashed on the sand.

"Mamma Mia! What's-a going on-a down there?" Mario wondered out loud.

"What are you talking about?" Yoshi asked. The plumber pointed at what he saw through the window. "Oh. I have no idea."

The plane rented by the plumbers and their friends arrived on the island. All five of them went out of their plane and looked at the one that crashed.

"Oh, dear! I wonder what happened." Peach commented, concerned.

Luigi looked inside that plane and noticed something about it.

"Huh. No more fuel." The green plumber said.

"Hmm... I wonder what happened to the pilot of that plane." Mario thought out loud.

"Hum, guys? You might wanna see that." DK said.

The others looked at what the gorilla was pointing at. There were tracks on the sand. It seemed like four persons were there. All the tracks led to a green pipe.

"I'm-a curious-a to see who were-a those-a people." Mario said before jumping into the pipe.

"Mario, wait!" Luigi exclaimed, though a little too late as his brother was already gone through the pipe. "Shouldn't-a we focus our effort on-a finding-a the emeralds?" he asked out loud, scratching the back of his head.

"Honestly, I'm curious to see what this pipe leads to." Yoshi said. "WHEEEEEEEEE!" the dinosaur exclaimed excitedly when he jumped into the pipe.

Luigi, Peach and DK looked at each other.

"Ladies first." The gorilla said, gently motioning for Peach to go first.

"Oh! Thank you." The princess said, both surprised and glad to see the primate acting like that.

Soon after Peach went into the pipe, DK looked at Luigi. The green plumber sighed.

"Fine. I'll go."

Luigi jumped into the pipe. The gorilla then stood on the edge of the pipe before diving into it like a swimmer.

* * *

><p>After Sonic and his friends left Congo Bongo, their plane crashed on a nearby small island due to a lack of fuel. They then found a nearby pipe, which led them to another location.<p>

As soon as the hedgehog went out of the pipe, he looked in amazement at his surroundings. In fact, it was a place he recognized immediately.

"Guys, looks like we're in Emerald Coast again." The hedgehog said to his friends as soon as they appeared from the pipe.

They looked around, seeing the beach and the nearby ocean.

"It's been a while since we've been there." Tails said.

"I don't recall ever being here." Knuckles commented.

"Me neither." Amy said.

"Well, there's always a first time for everything." Sonic said.

"One thing for sure is it means we're back in Station Square." Tails commented.

"You guys are here, too?"

All five of them were confused by what they heard. They then looked up and noticed someone in the air. That someone landed on the ground, allowing Sonic and his friends to recognize that someone. It was a female white bat with blue eyelids and black wings. She had beige skin on her mouth, inside her ear and on her neck and below. She was wearing a pair of long white gloves, a black skintight suit covering her body with the exceptions of her shoulders and arms, a heart-shaped breast plate and white high heel boots.

"Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Let me guess. You four are looking for the Chaos Emeralds." Rouge the Bat said. "Am I wrong?"

"Well, sorta." Sonic replied.

"What are you doing here anyway, Rouge?" Amy asked.

"If you want to know, I was charged by G.U.N. to find the emeralds. The world has changed suddenly recently and they want to make sure the emeralds are in a safe place." The bat replied. "Although I wonder how the world has changed so suddenly..."

"Funny you should mention that..." Sonic said, smirking.

After a few minutes explaining where Sonic and the others explained to Rouge what happened to them recently, the bat stared at them for a moment.

"...Of course." She finally said. "This kind of stuff always happen to us for some reason."

"So... You have an emerald?" Tails asked.

"No, but I'm about to find one." Rouge replied.

"Where?" Knuckles asked.

The bat smirked after the echidna said that.

"Oh, you're dying to know that, aren't you?" she rhetorically asked in a teasing tone. "I mean, why should I tell you where I'm going to find that emerald anyway?"

"Well, how about we simply team up? We both want the same thing for pretty much the same reasons, so we should just work together. How about it?" Tails suggested.

Rouge thought about it. She then smirked again.

"Alright." She said. "For some reason, you guys always manage to save the world, so... sure, why not. I doubt you guys are going to be an interference with my work. Let me show you."

Rouge flied to the edge of the sand on the beach, pointing at the water.

"In the water?" Knuckles asked.

"To be more precise, it's inside a sunken ship. I've made some research and, if I'm right, it should be there." The bat explained.

"There they are!"

All five of them turned to their left to see Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach and Donkey Kong standing there.

"Thanks for telling us where the emerald is." Mario said to them.

"You have to fight me first, Mario." Sonic replied, with determination in his eyes too.

The plumber nodded before the two of them got into a fighting stance.

"You can do it, Mario." Peach said encouraging the plumber. "I'm sure you can beat him."

"Are you crazy!?" Amy exclaimed at Peach. "Mario, beating my Sonic? That's absurd!"

"Hum..." the princess said, arching an eyebrow. "I was just..."

"Oh, don't even bother arguing with me, miss! I know for one thing Sonic is able to beat any enemy that comes across him and Mario is no different! I mean, look at him. He's short, a little fat and that mustache of his is way out of fashion!" the pink hedgehog said.

Peach started to get a little annoyed by what Amy said.

"Mario is fine the way he is." The princess said.

"Ah! Admit it, you're saying that because you're his girlfriend." Amy said in a teasing tone.

"I'm proud to have him as my boyfriend! And even if we weren't a couple, I'd still say he's fine the way he is."

Mario, Sonic and the rest of their respective friends arched an eyebrow at seeing both girls talking to each other like that.

"Yeah, sure, but he's nothing compared to Sonic." Amy said. "Unlike Mario, Sonic is fast, strong, agile..."

"Mario is also all of that! Well, okay, maybe not as fast, but certainly stronger and more agile!" Peach said.

"Hum, Peach..." Mario began to say.

"Not now, Mario! I'm handling this." She responded to the plumber before looking back at the pink hedgehog. "And for the record, Mario was able to beat Sonic when they fought yesterday."

"He did it all with pure luck!" Amy exclaimed.

"Amy, please..." Sonic began to say.

"Enough, Sonic! Can't you see I'm in the middle of an argument, here?" she asked rhetorically at him before looking back at the princess. "Despite this little defeat, Sonic CAN go back on his feet soon after. As far as I know, Sonic never met anyone he wasn't able to defeat. And it's not a stupid plumber with a stupid princess girlfriend that will be the first!"

Peach was now looking angry at the pink hedgehog.

"Mario... Let me fight her." She said.

"What?" Mario asked.

"LET. ME. FIGHT. HER." The princess said while giving one big angry stare at the plumber.

Mario was getting more nervous. He made one step backwards before pointing at the pink hedgehog.

"Go ahead. Nothing's-a stopping-a you." The plumber said, with a nervous smile.

"Good." Peach said before charging at Amy.

The pink hedgehog smirked before summoning her Piko Piko Hammer. As soon as the princess came close to her, Amy hit her with her weapon, sending Peach flying away in the air before landing in the ocean.

"Peach!" Mario yelled in panic.

The pink hedgehog calmly walked to where the princess disappeared. Amy looked around in the water, searching for her.

"Where is she, now?" she wondered out loud.

Suddenly, three things appeared from the water. Looking closer, Amy noticed it was Peach's crown and pair of shoes. All of sudden, one gloved hand came from the water and grabbed Amy by the leg.

"Uh-oh." Amy quickly said before holding her breath as she was dragged under the water.

* * *

><p>As soon as she was submerged in the water, the pink hedgehog managed to remove the hand that was holding onto her leg. She looked down and saw Peach. Due to the loss of her shoes, the princess was now barefoot. Looking at her mouth, Amy noticed how puffy her cheeks were, meaning Peach was holding her breath. She then noticed the glare Peach was giving to her. The princess motioned the pink hedgehog to come fight her. With determination on her face, Amy swam fast enough towards Peach, ready to swing her Piko Piko Hammer at her. However, before she could do that, the princess knocked her with one punch, sending the pink hedgehog spinning around in the water. After a while of spinning around, Amy stopped doing that, although she looked dazed. She shook her head before glaring back at Peach.<p>

Swimming faster this time, the pink hedgehog was getting ready to hit the princess. Peach was about to hit her opponent as well. However, Amy dodged the punch and immediately hit her down with her Piko Piko Hammer. This had the effect of sending the princess towards the underwater ground. Peach held her head before looking up and glaring at the pink hedgehog. The princess wasn't ready to give up. Peach then realized something. She was next to the sunken ship Rouge mentioned earlier. The princess looked back to where Amy was and realized the pink hedgehog noticed the sunken ship as well. Peach got an idea. She stood on the ground, grabbed something from it and, with all her strength, pulled it up. She was able to summon a turnip and held it as she swam towards her opponent.

Swimming towards the sunken ship, Amy was ready to look for the Star Emerald. All of sudden, she received Peach's turnip on the head. Annoyed, the pink hedgehog turned around to face the princess. The latter then kicked Amy with her foot. Quickly, the pink hedgehog grabbed both of her feet and held them tight. Peach seemed worried as she struggled to free her feet. Then, Amy swung her hammer and hit her again with her weapon. The princess was sent away until she managed herself to stop going any further. She quickly swam back to where Amy was, who entered the ship. The pink hedgehog arrived to a place with an empty treasure chest. Inside said chest was the Star Emerald. Amy smirked as she swam towards the emerald.

The pink hedgehog then realized something was behind her. She looked behind and saw Peach coming towards her. Amy got herself ready to fight the princess again. The pink hedgehog kept swinging her hammer around to hit her. However, Peach managed to avoid it every time. The princess then summoned a frying pan and hit Amy in the face. The pink hedgehog was turning around fast until she stabilized herself. She then looked at Peach. Amy made a face, as if to say 'Really? A frying pan?' to her. Peach simply smirked at her opponent.

The pink hedgehog then got an idea, causing her to smirk as well. She swam back to where the princess was. Peach kept trying to hit her with her frying pan. Amy was luckily able to avoid it each time. The pink hedgehog then grabbed Peach's feet again. At first, the princess thought she was going to hit her with her hammer again. Much to her surprise, though, Amy simply decided to tickle her bare feet. Resisting the urge to laugh, the princess tried all her best to avoid laughing. However, the pink hedgehog kept tickling her feet for a long moment. After a while, it was too much for Peach as she opened her mouth to laugh.

Needing air, the princess had to go back on the surface. Fortunately, Amy released her feet, allowing her to swim back there. She swam back outside the sunken ship and then swam towards the surface. As soon as she reached the surface, Peach gasped for air. She sighed in relief.

"That was close..." the princess said to herself.

"Peach! Are you alright?"

The princess turned around to see Mario, Sonic and the others on the beach. The plumber was waving at her.

"Yeah, Mario! I'm fine." She waved back at him. "Although that pink hedgehog is..."

She didn't have time to finish as she felt something grabbing her leg and pulling her back underwater. As Peach immediately expected, Amy was the one grabbing her leg. Instantly, the pink hedgehog swung her Piko Piko Hammer at the princess. Peach dodged it in time. She then kicked her opponent with her foot before immediately hitting her with her frying pan again. This caused Amy to be sent away and hitting a nearby rock. This, in turn, knocked the pink hedgehog unconscious. The princess then noticed something falling from Amy's hand. Her eyes went wide as he recognized it as the Star Emerald. As fast as she could, Peach swam towards the Star Emerald and caught it in time.

She sighed in relief. However, she accidentally opened her mouth, losing her breath. The princess would slap her forehead right away if it weren't for the fact she had to go back to the surface immediately. As she swam back to the surface, Peach looked back to the unconscious Amy. Looking at her, the princess gradually stopped swimming. She looked back and forth between the surface and the pink hedgehog. She had to go get some air, but she couldn't let Amy drown like that. The princess had to make a decision and quick...

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, both groups on the beach were looking at the water, waiting for the girls to reappear from there.<p>

"What's-a taking them-a so long?" Mario wondered out loud, worried for Peach.

"I don't know, but I hope they'll reappear soon." Sonic said, worried for Amy.

All of sudden, they saw bubbles coming out of the water. Soon after, Peach appeared from the water, gasping for air. Her arm then appeared from the water, revealing itself to be holding Amy. The pink hedgehog was still unconscious. The princess swam while dragging Amy, until she arrived at the point where she could walk on the beach. As she arrived on the dry sand, Peach let go of Amy, fell on her knee and lied on her stomach. Exhausted, she sighed in relief, enjoying the sensation of warm sand.

"Peach!" Mario exclaimed as he, Luigi, Yoshi, and DK ran towards the princess.

"Amy!" Sonic exclaimed before him, Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge ran towards the pink hedgehog.

"Peach! What happened?" the red plumber asked as he came near her.

"We... We had a fight... I won." Peach said, still feeling exhausted.

"Are you alright?" Luigi asked.

"Need... some rest... but I'm fine." She replied.

"You can ride on my saddle if you want." Yoshi said to her.

"Thanks... Yoshi." The princess said as she tried to stand up.

Her friends tried to help her, but she preferred standing up without any help. Peach sat on Yoshi's saddle, holding onto his neck and resting her head against the back of his.

"Oh! By the way, we grabbed your shoes and crown." DK said as he showed her the items.

"Thanks. I'll put them back on me later. I'm too tired now..." she said.

"Okay." The gorilla replied.

At the same time, Sonic and the others were surrounding the unconscious Amy.

"Is she alright?" Sonic asked, worried.

Tails put his ear against her, listening to her heart.

"Amy should be fine. She'll wake up at any moment."

"Good..." The blue hedgehog said, sighing in relief.

At the same time, Rouge noticed Mario and his friends already leaving. She glared at them.

"Hey! You! Give us back the emerald!" she exclaimed as she fled towards them.

Hearing that, Yoshi turned around. The dinosaur saw the bat coming towards them. While still having Peach on his saddle, Yoshi jumped towards the bat. Immediately, the dinosaur opened his mouth and grabbed Rouge with his tongue.

"What the...!?"

Rouge didn't much time to anything else as Yoshi ate her at once. He then made a huge egg with green dots on it. The dinosaur ran away with the princess, along with the others. The egg, on the other hand, was shaking around. Being stuck inside, Rouge was struggling to get herself free. After a while, she managed to destroy the egg, freeing herself. The bat was angry as she looked around. Much to her frustration, Mario and his allies were already gone.

"That dinosaur! I swear he will regret turning me into an egg like that!" Rouge exclaimed in annoyance.

At this moment, Amy woke up, feeling a bit tired.

"Sonic?" she said as she recognized the blue hedgehog. "What happened?"

"Hum... You lost your fight against the princess." He replied.

"Oh... Darn it." The pink hedgehog said.

"Don't feel so bad about it. We still got plenty of emeralds to get. Besides what really matters is that you're feeling better now." He said, smiling.

"Oh... Sonic..."

Amy slowly sat up. Gradually, she put her arms around the blue hedgehog. For once, the latter didn't pull back as he knew she needed that after what just happened.

"There, there. Everything's fine." He said, trying to reassure her.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

One more emerald for the Mario Crew. And not only did DK join the plumber and his friends, but Rouge also joined the Sonic crew.

In my first version of this fanfic, Cream and Cheese were among the Sonic characters starring in it. However, I decided to replace them with Rouge, who didn't appear in it at all. I choose Rouge because not only she's among my favorite Sonic characters, but also because I thought it'd be interesting to have her interact with Sonic, Tails, and Amy, seeing how the bat mostly interacts with the rest of Team Dark and Knuckles in the games.

I actually had a lot of fun making the underwater battle. For one thing, it was the first time I did such a fight. Also, this was the first time I made a fight where there were little to no dialogue, so that was a great thing I enjoyed doing.

Read and review!


	7. Cold Duos

Chapter 7: Cold Duos

The next morning, Sonic and his friends woke up from a cave. All five of them, including Rouge who decided to join them on finding the emeralds, were ready to continue their adventure.

"Okay, does anyone know how to find the next emerald?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"Well, I have an idea." Tails said as he got a small device from his pocket and showed it to the others.

"What is that?" Amy asked.

"It's an Emerald Radar." The fox explained. "I've spent the whole night building it. With the help of the one Star Emerald we have, we should be able to find the next one."

"That's great, Tails!" Sonic said, cheering his best friend. However, he arched an eyebrow as he thought about what the fox just said. "Wait, you've spent the whole night... You're sure you ain't too tired?"

"Not really, Sonic." Tails replied. "Not too tired to go to sleep right now."

"If you say so. So... where's the next emerald?"

The fox touched a few buttons on the device.

"According to this, the closest emerald is... on top of some mountain."

"Where's that mountain?" Knuckles asked.

"Hum... About three hours away from here."

"Which speed for these three hours? Normal speed, or sonic speed?" Sonic asked, pointing at himself when saying 'sonic speed' while smirking.

"Normal." Tails replied.

"Well, you know the drill. Let's hold each other's hands." The blue hedgehog said.

Immediately, Amy grabbed his left hand, causing him to roll his eyes. Sonic grabbed Knuckles' left hand with his right. The pink hedgehog grabbed Tails' right hand with her left. Rouge grabbed the echidna's right hand with her left.

"Here we go!" Sonic exclaimed before running full speed while bringing his friends with him.

* * *

><p>They didn't need to waste three hours as they arrived at the bottom of the mountain much earlier than that. Everyone stopped holding each other's hands, with a few exceptions.<p>

"Amy, you can stop holding it now." Sonic said to the pink hedgehog.

"Aw..." she complained, reluctantly letting go of the blue hedgehog's hand.

"Hum... Rouge?" Knuckles said as the bat was still holding his hand. "You can release my hand."

"Why? You're not enjoying it?" she said in a flirty tone.

The echidna removed his hand from hers, all while blushing a little bit.

"Hum... Tails?" Amy said as she looked up. "Is this the mountain you were talking about?"

"Yeah. Why?" Tails asked.

"You didn't mention anything about it being so snowy."

Everyone else looked up and noticed how most of the mountain was covered in snow and ice.

"Yeah, well, my radar doesn't mention anything about the weather of the places we're visiting. It could be as dry as a desert or as green as a forest, it wouldn't matter to it." The fox explained.

"So, the emerald is on top of it?" Sonic asked, causing Tails to nod. "Okay then. I'm willing to climb that mountain."

"I've got a better idea, Sonic. I could fly the two of us to the top." The fox said.

"Sure. What about you three?" the blue hedgehog asked the others. "Wanna come with us?"

"Nah, I'm sure you two will be able to find that emerald on you own." Knuckles replied.

"I don't feel like walking on a cold environment. Maybe another time." Amy said.

"As much as I would love to get into the action, I need to send a report to GUN first." Rouge said.

"Alright then. Let's go, buddy!" Sonic exclaimed.

Tails started flying in the air. He then waited for the blue hedgehog to grab onto his legs. After this happened, the fox flied in the air, towards the top of the mountain. Rouge then walked into the forest, wanting to make her report to GUN in a more private place. This left Knuckles and Amy as the only two waiting down the mountain.

"So... What do we do now?" the pink hedgehog asked.

"I don't know." The echidna shrugged before looking around. He noticed a tree stomp nearby. "We could always sit on that stomp."

Amy nodded before they walked to the tree stomp and sat on it. They stayed there for a while, doing nothing much.

"You think it's gonna take them a while?" Knuckles asked.

"Possibly." She replied.

"Yeah. I thought so."

About a minute passed while the two of them did nothing at all. Amy then sighed.

"You know what, Knuckles?"

"What?"

"It did happen a couple of times before that we ended up bickering for various reasons."

"Yeah, I know that." The echidna said. "Why bringing that up?"

"Well, I'll be honest with you. If there's one thing I don't like about you is your grumpy personality. Seriously, at times, you're too serious!"

"Watch out, Amy..." Knuckles said, getting a little annoyed.

"But... I have to admit I can understand why. I mean, you've got the job of protecting the Master Emerald and that probably ain't fun at all. I'd be grumpy too if I had to sit there all day long just to protect some big shiny rock. Erm... no offense." She said, sheepishly as she knew Knuckles didn't like it much when people insulted the Master Emerald. "Anyway, the point is, despite your grumpy personality... there's a reason why you have a close bond with Sonic, why you have a close bond with Tails... and why you have a close bond with me."

Knuckles looked at her, a bit surprised. He then smirked.

"You think my 'grumpy personality' is annoying? How about your attitude? 'Oh, Sonic! My knight in shining armor! I could kiss you all day long! Everyone stay out of my way! Sonic is all that matters to me!' And all other stuff you usually say..." he said in a mocking tone.

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed, annoyed by what the echidna said.

"However... I will have to admit you ain't a bad person, far from it. I mean, you can be annoying at times, but I know you will always do the right thing, you always mean well and you do learn from your mistakes. That makes you a good person in my book." The echidna said to her.

Amy looked at him. She wasn't really expecting to hear that from him.

"You really mean it?"

"Yeah. Admittedly, I will always prefer hanging out with Sonic, Tails or even the Chaotix. But as far as I'm concerned, you and the guys I've mentioned will always be part of my family. I know it may sound cheesy, but I honestly don't care if it is." Knuckles said.

A few seconds later after hearing that from the echidna, the pink hedgehog grabbed him and hugged him tight.

"Hey! Don't hug me too much. I'm not your boyfriend." He complained.

"Boyfriends aren't the only ones I can hug. Friends and family too." She said with a smile.

The echidna sighed and shrugged before hugging her back. They then stopped hugging.

"Okay, do me a favor. Don't tell anyone I've done that. I don't want people to think I'm a softy. I have a reputation, you know." Knuckles said.

"Don't worry about it!" she said, promising him. "Now, I gotta ask something."

"What?"

"About the part where you said how me, Sonic, Tails and the Chaotix were part of your family... Is Rouge also part of it?" Amy asked, smirking.

"I don't know what you're talking about..." the echidna replied, turning his head away.

"Sure, if you say so..." she said, rolling her eyes.

* * *

><p>On the other side of the mountain, a certain duo of plumbers and their friends arrived to get something in particular.<p>

"At the top of the mountain?" Yoshi asked.

"Yep." Luigi replied as he was holding the Matter Searching Device.

"It's gonna take us a while." Peach commented.

"It should-a be no problem-a for-a me and-a my bro." Mario said. "Let's-a use our-a jumping-a skills, Luigi!"

"Okey-dokey, bro!" his brother replied.

Immediately, the Mario Bros. jumped in the air and started going up the mountain. Yoshi, Peach and DK stood there for a while as they watched the plumbers going further away from them.

"So... Does anyone have any idea what to do until they come back?" DK asked.

"Oh! I know! How about we play a game of Mario Party?" Yoshi asked.

"We need a board for that." The princess pointed out.

"Oh... How about Mario Kart?"

"We need some karts."

"Tennis?"

"Tennis rackets."

"Golf?" the dinosaur asked, causing the princess to sigh.

"Are you going to suggest every single activity we've been playing in the past few years?" Peach asked.

"Hum... You're right." Yoshi said before sitting down and sighing.

"You know what?" the princess asked.

"What?" Yoshi and DK asked at once.

"I wonder what happened to the others."

"What are you talking about?" the gorilla asked.

"Well, I was thinking about Daisy, Toad, Toadsworth, Toadette, Wario, Waluigi, etc. I wonder what happened to them ever since our world was mixed with another."

"I don't know. We might come across any one of them during our journey." The dinosaur said.

"Yeah, maybe." Peach said.

* * *

><p>Back with Sonic and Tails, the two heroes were flying towards the top of the mountain. After a while, both of them arrived at their destination. The hedgehog released his grip from the fox's legs and jumped on the ground. The fox then landed next to him.<p>

"So, where's the emerald exactly in this winter atmosphere?" Sonic asked.

"It should be at the center of this place." Tails replied as he looked at his emerald radar.

"Let's see if your device is right." The hedgehog said before him and the fox ran towards the center of the top.

Soon after, they arrived at where the emerald was supposed to be. Sonic looked around, having no clue where it is.

"Hum... Any idea where it could be?" he asked his friend. "Because I don't see it anywhere."

"I don't understand." Tails said as he looked back at his device. "It's supposed to be here."

All of sudden, the fox noticed something. Near them was an ice block. Inside the ice was the one thing they were looking for.

"There it is!" the fox exclaimed.

"Let me take care of this." Sonic said as he came closer to the ice block.

Just as the hedgehog was about to make a spin dash to hit the ice block, he was suddenly tackled to the side. Sonic looked up and noticed Mario restraining him on the ground with his arms.

"You!" Sonic exclaimed at the plumber.

"Now, Luigi!" Mario shouted.

Tails turned around and noticed Luigi coming towards the ice block.

"Don't-a worry, Mario! I've-a got this!" his brother replied.

Right before the green plumber could even hit the ice block, Tails suddenly hit him in the face with his fist. Luigi was thrown away and landed on his back. The green plumber sat up, groaning as he rubbed his face. He then looked at the fox.

"You can-a fight, too?" he asked, confused. "You don't-a seem-a to be the action-a type."

"Never underestimate the nice guys." Tails replied proudly.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind the next time I deal with another nice guy!" Luigi said before charging at the fox.

Tails used his tails to fly over Luigi, causing the latter to miss his opponent and trip to land on his face. Meanwhile, Sonic managed to free himself from Mario's grip, grabbed the red plumber and threw him away. His opponent landed next to Luigi. Both brothers stood up together before facing their enemies. Tails flied next to Sonic. The humans and the animals were looking at each other with determination.

"Two versus two. Seems like a fair fight." Sonic said.

"Just-a like last time, whoever wins-a keep-a the emerald." Mario said.

"Deal. Ready, Tails?" the hedgehog asked his best friend.

"Ready, Sonic!" the fox replied.

"In-a the mood-a for a fight, Luigi?" the red plumber asked his brother.

"Anytime, Mario!" the green plumber replied.

* * *

><p>Both duos kept staring at each other before they finally charged at each other. The plumbers jumped and raised their fists, ready to punch their opponents. Tails grabbed Sonic's hand and flied in the air with his tails. They avoided getting hit by the plumber's fists as they hit the snow instead. The fox flied fast enough towards Mario and Luigi. He let go of the hedgehog, who then fell towards the red plumber. The latter dodged by stepping to the left, which made Sonic landed face first on the snow. The Mario Bros. then surrounded the hedgehog to hit him. However, the latter made a spin dash and hurt both of them. Tails arrived next to his best friend and brought him in the air.<p>

Sonic then used his Homing Attack to hurt the plumbers. Luigi jumped in the air and hurt Tails with a kick. The latter fell to the snow. He stood up and flied directly towards Mario, hitting him with a punch. Sonic ran towards the green plumber and hit him fast enough, making him land next to his brother. Both plumbers stood up and found themselves surrounded by the anthropomorphic animals. Mario then got an idea. He quickly grabbed Luigi by the hands and swung him around, hitting the hedgehog and the fox while also causing the green plumber to yelp in alarm. Mario then put Luigi on the ground.

"Hey! Tell me first-a before using-a me as a weapon!" the green plumber exclaimed.

"Sorry, bro." the red plumber said, sheepishly.

Meanwhile, Sonic tried to stand up and noticed something. He saw two glass capsules with the picture of an aura made of color inside. The hedgehog smirked. Seeing how Luigi was currently complaining with Mario, Sonic took this as an opportunity.

"Tails! The capsules!" he shouted before running towards the capsules.

Realizing what his best friend just said, the fox immediately flied as fast as he could towards the capsules as well.

"Capsules? What capsules?" Luigi asked, as both him and Mario were confused.

The Mobians ran next to the capsules and touched them. The capsules disappeared. At the same time, Sonic and Tails were covered by multicolored shields. The hedgehog smirked.

"Here we go!" he exclaimed.

The two Mobians ran towards the plumbers. The latter tried to run away. Unfortunately, they stepped on some ice and slid as they lost their balance. Soon enough, using their invincibility, Sonic and Tails hit the Mario Bros. several times with their Spin Dash. The plumbers yelped each time they got hurt. After a while, the hedgehog and the fox lost their invincibility shields.

"Our turn, now!" Mario exclaimed as both him and Luigi stood up.

The green plumber then noticed a fire flower in the ground and grabbed it. His clothes then changed colors, with his cap and overalls becoming white.

"Not this again!" Sonic exclaimed.

Luigi sent several fireballs at Tails. The latter yelped in alarm as he received them. At the same time, Sonic gave a punch to Mario. The latter responded with a kick in the stomach. The hedgehog was sent flying backwards. Meanwhile, Tails had enough of receiving fireballs and decided to run around Luigi in a circle. While doing so, the fox also spun his body around. The green plumber tried to hit him with his fireballs, but Tails was turning around him too fast. While turning around, the fox also went gradually closer to his opponent.

After a while, Tails was close enough to hit him with his two tails. The green plumber was thrown backwards, landing on his back and losing his fire power. Luigi groaned as he sat up. He noticed Mario and Sonic fighting each other. Seeing how the hedgehog wasn't paying attention to him, the green plumber ran towards him and tackled him to the ground. Sonic then kicked Luigi before standing up. Tails flied above both plumbers and the hedgehog.

"Sonic! Grabbed my legs!" the fox shouted.

His best friend did as he was told. Tails then grabbed the hedgehog's hands and kicked him towards both plumbers, hurting them. Sonic made a Spin Dash to give more damage to Mario. The fox then noticed two other capsules. These two had the picture of a red shoe. Immediately, Tails flied towards one of them and touched it. He got the ability to run faster temporarily. The fox made several snowballs at once and threw them at Luigi one by one really fast. The green plumber yelped every time he got hit by the snowballs. Soon after, Tails lost the effects of the speed capsule. Luigi sighed in relief before running towards the fox, punching him a couple of times. The green plumber's opponent then flied in the air.

"I've got a little surprise-a for you!" Luigi exclaimed as he grabbed a power-up from his pocket.

That power-up turned out to be a Raccoon Leaf. Luigi got a pair of raccoon ears and a raccoon tail. The green plumber flied in the air, joining his opponent. Luigi and Tails looked at each other. Then, the green plumber charged at the fox like a missile. The latter did the same thing. Just as they hit each other at the same time, they then both fell down, landing on their back. This caused Luigi to lose his raccoon form. Both him and Tails were too tired to continue fighting.

"Luigi!" Mario exclaimed when he saw that.

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed at the same sight.

Looking at their tired sidekicks, the plumber and the hedgehog then looked at each other. They ran towards each other, ready to continue the fight. Sonic jumped in the air and was ready to land a punch on Mario. The latter dodged it by jumping as well. The plumber spun around like a tornado while stretching his fists, hitting the hedgehog several times. Sonic landed on his stomach. The hedgehog was getting tired by this fight.

"Ready to give up?" Mario asked.

Sonic looked around before noticing the speed capsule that Tails didn't use.

"Don't even think about it, plumber!" Sonic exclaimed before running fast towards the capsule.

As he touched it, the hedgehog smirked when he received the ability to run faster. Sonic ran faster than usual as while turning around Mario. He punched the plumber several times in a row, with the latter not being fast enough to react. After a while of giving several punches at his opponent, the hedgehog then ran away before coming full speed. Coming at once, Sonic gave one big punch to Mario, sending him in the air before landing on his back. The plumber tried to stand up, but he gave up as he was too tired. As he lost the extra speed, the hedgehog smirked proudly of what he did.

"Yes!" Sonic exclaimed as he gave a two thumbs-up. "Too easy! Piece of cake!"

The hedgehog turned his attention to the Star Emerald, which was still stuck inside the ice block. Without wasting much time, he used his Spin Dash against the block, breaking it into pieces. Sonic grabbed the emerald and threw it in the air before catching it back. He turned around to see Tails still lying on the ground. The hedgehog walked to his best friend and grabbed him as well.

"Hang on, pal. I'll get you down this mountain." Sonic said before running down the mountain with the fox and the emerald, getting ready to be reunited with their friends.

* * *

><p>A couple of minutes after the hedgehog and the fox left, Mario finally stood up, groaning from the fight.<p>

"Mamma Mia! He's-a quite-a strong!" the red plumber exclaimed.

He looked at Luigi, who was still lying on the ground.

"Is it over, bro?" the green plumber asked.

"Yeah." Mario replied as he helped his brother standing up.

"Can we go back-a down? It's-a getting cold here." Luigi asked.

"No need-a to tell-a me twice."

Soon after, the Mario Bros. climbed back down the mountain, on their way to see the rest of their friends.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Another emerald for Sonic and his team. The next chapter is one I've been waiting to do for a long time.

Read and review!


	8. Double Trouble

To answer Girl67's review, I'm planning to make 14 chapters overall, although it could change if I feel like it.

Chapter 8: Double Trouble

A while after Mario and Luigi climbed the mountain, they climbed it down and reunited with their friends. The group of heroes traveled for several hours. After a while, they got tired for all that traveling and decided to rest until the next day. They found some cave where they would be able to sleep.

"So far, we've got two emeralds, while Sonic and his allies also have two of them." Peach said as she thought about what happened so far.

"Which means-a there's-a three more emeralds-a to find." Luigi commented.

"We'll find them soon enough. Don't worry about it!" Yoshi cheerfully said, optimistic as always.

"Let's hope so." DK said.

Just as Mario was about to say something, he was interrupted by someone screaming nearby.

"Impossible! WHY?! WHY ME?!" that voice yelled.

Mario and his friends turned around and looked to see where that voice came from.

"That's unfair! Unfair to ME!" the voice yelled some more, in a complained tone.

"It seems-a to be coming-a from there." Mario said as he went towards where the voice was heard from.

The others followed the red plumber. The latter arrived next to some bush and looked through it. He noticed someone sitting there, looking miserable. That someone was a fat man with brown hair, pointy ears, black eyes, a pink nose, a twisted mustache, a double chin and muscles-filled arms. He was wearing a yellow cap with the letter 'W' in a white oval, purple overalls, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, white gloves with the letter 'W' on them as well, and green pointed shoes. The fat man was someone Mario was greatly familiar with.

"That's just-a plain unfair! Why did it have-a to happen-a to me?!" the fat man yelled some more.

"Wario?" Mario asked.

The fat man turned around when he heard someone calling his name. As soon as he noticed Mario and the rest of the heroes, Wario was quite surprised.

"Mario? What the heck are you doing-a here!?" Wario asked, annoyed to see his rival.

"I was actually gonna ask you the same-a question." Mario replied. "Why were you yelling-a like-a that?"

"Well, if you wanna know the truth, I'm-a yelling-a because-a something horrible happened to me." The fat man said. "My fortune disappeared!"

"Say what?" Luigi asked.

"ALL of my gold! My beautiful-a treasures! Everything I earned while-a doing-a treasure hunting or getting-a money by selling my WarioWare products... It's all gone!" Wario exclaimed in despair. "I don't even-a know what happened. One-a night, I was looking-a through my window while hugging-a some-a dollar bills near my face..."

"That doesn't surprise me..." Luigi whispered to the others, causing Yoshi and DK to snicker.

"...when all of-a sudden, some-a light covered the sky and I went unconscious. The next-a morning, much-a to my shock, I ended up on some-a place I didn't recognize, with no sign of my fortune anywhere-a close-a to me! I've spent the last-a few days-a trying-a to find-a my precious-a treasures, but nothing-a so far! What did I do to deserve-a this!?" Wario yelled some more.

"You really wanna know the answer?" Luigi asked in a deadpan tone, once again, causing Yoshi and DK to snicker.

"Oh, shut up!" the fat man snapped in annoyance at the green plumber.

"I think I know what caused-a your fortune-a to disappear." Mario said.

"Oh, really? What's that?" Wario asked.

For the next few minutes, the red plumber explained to his rival everything that happened to them since both worlds were fused together. As soon as Mario was done, Wario was slack-jawed.

"...You! It's all your fault!" the fat man yelled before charging towards his rival to hurt him.

Before Wario could hurt his rival, DK stepped in front of Mario and punched the fat man hard enough to send him on a nearby tree. The latter fell on his stomach. He stood up, looking angrily at the primate.

"Oh, so you have a bodyguard, now?"

"I'm not his bodyguard, but I won't let you hurt him for something he isn't responsible for." The gorilla replied, glaring at the fat man.

"Whatever..." Wario said, not caring much about what DK would say. "Now, how the heck am I supposed to get-a my fortune-a back!?"

"Well, you can always help us find the Star Emeralds." Peach suggested.

"The Star what?" Wario asked, confused.

"Mario already explained that part, but if you need some refreshing..."

The princess explained to the fat man what the Star Emeralds were. As soon as she was done, Wario was thinking about something.

"Okay... Let me ask you this. If these-a Star Emeralds are real and rare... that must-a mean they're-a valuable, right?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Most likely." Yoshi said. "Why asking this?"

Suddenly, Wario started running away as fast as someone with his weight could.

"Hahahahaha!" the fat man laughed maniacally. "These-a Star Emeralds will-a make-a me rich once I sell-a them-a to the first richest idiot I come across!"

As Wario was running away and disappearing further from their sight, Mario and his friends all sighed in tiredness at seeing the fat man being so greedy once again.

* * *

><p>One hour after running away from Mario and the others, Wario finally stopped running, catching his breath. The night just started at the moment. The fat man then pondered about what he should do.<p>

"Alright then... Those emeralds-a must-a be as rare as the most-a valuable of all treasures. So... If I was a treasure, where would I be?"

He rubbed his chin in interest before looking around him. All of sudden, Wario noticed something in the distance. Behind some tree was some old abandoned house. The fat man then snapped his fingers in success.

"Of-a course! A haunted house! There's often-a hidden treasures inside of haunted house. Wario, you are a genius!" he congratulated himself before going towards the house.

The fat man slowly opened the entrance door before entering it. He made his way through the first floor, looking to see if there were sign of a Star Emerald nearby. Suddenly, he heard something. Wario turned around, but noticed nothing that was unusual. As he turned back to where he was going...

"BOO!"

Wario yelped in alarm at what he came across. In front of him were a whole group of ghosts. All of them were white and spherical. They all had menacing eyes, fangs coming from their mouth, a tail behind and small arms. Those ghosts were known as the Boos, a species of ghost from Mario's world. All of them smirked menacingly at the fat man.

"You're lost, you fat glutton?" one of them rhetorically asked.

"Hey! I ain't just fat! I'm-a very strong too!" Wario snapped, offended.

"Sure, if you say so. But one thing you seem to forget is the fact this ain't your house." The Boo said to him. "It's our own house. You dare disturb our slumber. We're gonna make you pay for that." He said, smirking menacingly alongside the rest of the Boos.

"If you wanna mess-a with me, I'll gladly punch ya all!" the fat man exclaimed.

The Boos all charged towards Wario. The latter didn't waste much time as he kept punching many of them one by one. He even grabbed some of them and threw them at some others. After a while of doing this, Wario was done dealing with the ghosts. The Boos were all lying down on the floor, dazed from what just happened. The fat man scratched his butt before going up the nearby stairs. While Wario was leaving through those stairs, the Boos were wondering how it happened.

"Could someone explain to me how we managed to lose to that obnoxious glutton?" one Boo asked the others.

"Wait... Didn't we forget something? Didn't we forget to make ourselves intangible so he could miss us?" one other Boo asked.

"...Oh, you've got to be kidding me." The first Boo said, groaning as he realized what just happened.

* * *

><p>While the Boos were complaining about their defeat, Wario continued to climb up the stairs. The fat man was getting tired because there was a lot of stairs to climb.<p>

"Man... Who decided it was a good idea to make so many stairs?" he rhetorically asked himself.

Soon enough, though, he arrived at the top of the stairs, which led to some door. As he opened the door, the fat man entered some large room filled with a table, a couch and a couple of other stuff. Wario looked around until he noticed something on the table. That something was one of the Star Emerald. The fat man grinned greedily at the sight of that.

"YEAH! WARIO'S THE BEST! I'M-A GONNA WIN!" he yelled in excitement before running towards the table and snatching the emerald from it.

Wario admired the Star Emerald, already thinking of the fortune he'll get by selling it.

"Talk about how convenient this is. I looked at the first haunted house I come across and it turns out to be the one with the emerald I was-a looking for. This is so great! I'll-a make a fortune out of-a these-a things..."

Suddenly, a black and red blur went past the fat man, causing him to spin around. Wario stopped himself from spinning, looking dazed. He shook his head before looking at his hand. Much to his shock, the emerald was gone. The fat man turned around and realized there was someone else who appeared in the room.

It was a black-furred hedgehog with red stripes on his quills. The hedgehog had red eyes, beige skin on his mouth and inside of his ears, and white fur on his chest. He was wearing a pair of white gloves with golden rings on the wrists and a pair of white, black, red and yellow shoes. At this moment, the hedgehog was holding the Star Emerald in his hand.

"What the... HEY!" Wario yelled in annoyance. "Who the heck do you think you are?!"

The hedgehog turned his head towards the fat man. The former seemed to be frowning.

"I am Shadow... Shadow the Hedgehog." he replied.

"Give-a me that emerald back, Shadow the Idiot!" Wario exclaimed impatiently.

"Not a chance." Shadow said, with determination on his face.

The fat man groaned in frustration at the hedgehog refusing to give him the emerald.

"Alright then. Looks like you need-a someone-a to teach ya a lesson. You'll-a regret to have awakened the wrath of Wario!" he exclaimed as he charged towards Shadow.

The fat man raised his fist while charging towards his opponent. The hedgehog didn't change his expression as he simply sidestepped to the left, causing Wario to miss his target, trip and land on his face. Shadow didn't seem impressed by it.

"Hmph. Pathetic." He commented.

All of sudden, Wario grabbed Shadow's leg, stood up and threw him on the nearest wall. This caused the hedgehog to accidentally let go of the Star Emerald, which landed on the nearby couch. He then landed on the floor. Wario jumped in the air and landed on Shadow, crushing him with his butt. The Ultimate Lifeform groaned from this surprise attack.

"Alright. You've asked for it..." Shadow said while looking menacingly at the fat man.

Using all his strength, the hedgehog managed to free himself from being crushed by Wario's butt. He then charged his Spin Dash, causing the fat man to be confused at the sight of this attack he had never seen before. Soon after, Shadow let go of his attack, hitting Wario really fast. This caused the fat man to be thrown away from the room and then rolling down the stairs like a boulder rolling down a hill. He kept yelling several 'ouch', 'ow' and such while rolling down those stairs before finally arriving on the first floor. Shadow looked down the stairs and frowned. The hedgehog then jumped on the handrail and grinded it down until he reached the first floor as well.

Wario stood up and jumped onto the hedgehog. While doing so, they accidentally burst through the nearby wall, arriving inside some other room. Both opponents coughed because of the amount of dusts inside that room. Wario then noticed something in particular. It was a floating green cube with an exclamation mark on every side. The fat man grinned before running towards the cube. Shadow stood up and wondered what Wario was doing. The latter jumped under the cube and punched it, causing a cap made of metal to appear and land on the floor. The fat man grabbed the metal cap and put it on his head.

Suddenly, his body was covered entirely in metal, making him become Metal Wario. Shadow didn't look too impressed by this transformation. The fat man then ran towards the hedgehog. The latter shot some yellow lightning arrow-shaped bolts at his opponent, thus using his Chaos Spear attack. Wario didn't even flinch when he received those bolts as he continued running towards his opponent. Shadow tried several more times using his Chaos Spear, although it always failed against the fat man's metallic form.

Wario then slammed his body against the hedgehog, knocking the latter to the ground. Shadow groaned as he stood up. He noticed the smirk on Wario's face. The hedgehog glared at him before running towards him. The Ultimate Lifeform kept punching and kicking the fat man several times. Wario then yawned, mocking the hedgehog. The latter gritted his teeth in anger as he continued trying to hit his opponent. All of sudden, Wario bashed Shadow with his shoulder, sending the hedgehog a few feet away. The fat man laughed at that.

"HA! HA! HA! You'll-a never beat me! I am WARIO! Nothing can..."

Suddenly, Wario's metallic form disappeared, bringing him back to his normal appearance.

"...stop me." He said, briefly confused before remembering the metal cap only lasted for a moment.

Wario looked back at the hedgehog. The latter smirked.

"Uh-oh..." the fat man briefly said.

In only a few seconds, Shadow ran towards his opponent and used his Chaos Spear several times on him. Wario shouted in pain each time he received those.

"Ouch! Enough with that! OW! I ain't a punching bag!" the fat man exclaimed in annoyance.

Shadow then spun around the fat man fast, making a Black Tornado that swoop him off his feet. Wario was dazed from this attack. The hedgehog took this opportunity to use his Homing Attack against him. The fat man fell on his back, groaning. He stood up, glaring at his opponent.

"Still want to be humiliated more?" Shadow rhetorically asked.

"Don't-a make-a me look like a fool!" Wario exclaimed in annoyance.

The fat man charged once again towards the hedgehog. The latter jumped in the air to give a kick to his opponent. Suddenly, Wario grabbed Shadow's leg. The fat man gave several punches at his opponent, swung him around and threw him towards the top of the nearest wall. The hedgehog hurt his back against the wall before landing back on the ground. Shadow stood up while feeling some pain. He then glared at the fat man.

"What you've just done... will only give you more unfortunate consequences!" Shadow exclaimed before jumping in the air.

The hedgehog jumped from one wall to the other several times, using his Triangle Jump while getting closer to his opponent. Wario arched an eyebrow at what was going on. Then, Shadow used his Homing Attack several times on the fat man, without even landing back on the ground each time he used this attack. After a while, the hedgehog landed on the ground, right next to Wario. The latter immediately used his shoulder to bash Shadow again. The latter fell face first on the floor.

"You are strong, I'll give you that." The hedgehog admitted as he stood up again.

"Thanks!" the fat man proudly said.

"But between the two of us, I'M the strongest one."

"You?" Wario said before laughing out loud at what he just heard.

"What's so funny?" Shadow asked, frowning.

"Look at these arms." Wario said as he pointed to his own arms. "They're filled with muscles. Grade A toughness!" He then pointed at Shadow. "Your arms, on the other hand, are quite-a skinny when compared to mine. You may be fast, but I'm-a still-a the strongest-a here! Besides, I really doubt a hedgehog would be able-a to beat the awesomeness-a that I am!"

"I am not any ordinary hedgehog. I am the Ultimate Lifeform." Shadow said. "I am the result of an experiment created by Pr. Gerald Rob..."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Sorry, I don't have time-a to listen-a to some-a boring backstory." Wario said completely uninterested.

Shadow was now frowning with more anger after hearing what the fat man just said.

"Don't you dare insult me..."

"Oh, you don't like-a being insulted? Why not saying so!" Wario exclaimed with a smirk. "You're an idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idi..."

"Enough!" Shadow exclaimed furiously. "Stop calling me an idiot! You have no idea how much annoying you are right now!"

"...Idiot." Wario briefly said, smirking.

"I'll show you who's the idiot..." The hedgehog calmly said.

Shadow ran towards the fat man and attacked him several times with his Homing Attack. Wario tried to resist as much as he could. Then, as the hedgehog used his Homing Attack another time, the fat man immediately punched the hedgehog hard enough to send him on some nearby chair, destroying said chair in the process.

"Are you tired, idiot?" Wario rhetorically asked, grinning.

Shadow was now filled entirely with anger after what he just heard.

"Don't call me... an IDIOT!"

The hedgehog yelled before using his Black Tornado once again to attack the fat man. As Wario was dazed, Shadow used his Homing Attack a few times on him. The Ultimate Lifeform then used his Chaos Spear on his opponent. Suddenly, one of the bolts hit Wario's butt. This caused the latter to scream in pain as he jumped in the air and held his butt with his hands. While his opponent was in the air, Shadow charged his Spin Dash, getting ready to use this attack. The fat man then fell towards the ground. Right before Wario could hit the ground, the hedgehog let go of his Spin Dash, hitting his opponent in the blink of an eye. As Shadow landed on his feet, the fat man landed on his back, nearby the hole in the wall he made a few minutes ago. Wario tried to stand up, but he was too tired and gave up, lying on the floor.

"Hmph. Perfect." Shadow said, frowning at the fat man.

The hedgehog looked back at the stairs and climbed them again. Less than a minute later, he came back, holding the Star Emerald in his hand. He looked at Wario, still lying on the floor. Shadow then looked at the entrance door before making his way towards it. As the Ultimate Lifeform was getting closer to the entrance door, Wario slowly stood up, groaning in pain. He then noticed Shadow, about to leave with the emerald. The fat man yelped in alarm at the sight of that.

"Oh, no! Give-a me that back, NOW!" Wario exclaimed before charging towards the hedgehog.

Just as he was right next to the entrance door, Shadow turned around and noticed the fat man charging at him. The hedgehog then held the Star Emerald in front of him, getting ready to do something he had a habit of doing.

"Chaos... Control!" Shadow exclaimed.

In a flash of light, the hedgehog suddenly disappeared. Seeing that while still charging, Wario was greatly confused by that until he ran right into the entrance door, crushing himself against it. He then fell on his back. The fat man shook his head before standing up.

"How the heck was he able-a to do that?!" he exclaimed in confusion. "Well, however he was able-a to do that, I don't-a care. All I care-a now is-a getting-a my revenge on him! But how am I gonna beat him?" Wario asked to himself before pondering a bit.

He then thought of an idea. However, the fat man groaned at this idea.

"No way! There has to be a better idea!" he exclaimed to himself.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately for Wario, he couldn't think of a better idea, so he had to go through with the first idea he got. A while later, during that same night, the fat man came back to where he saw Mario and the others for the last time. All of them were still at that cave. All of them were also surprised to see Wario back.<p>

"You want what?" Mario asked after hearing what his rival just said.

"I hate to say it, but I need-a your help, guys." Wario said. "I met some hedgehog and decided to fight him, but I lost to him in the end."

"A hedgehog!?" Mario and the others exclaimed at once.

"What? You don't know what a hedgehog is or what?" the fat man asked, confused by their reaction.

"Wario, could you describe us that hedgehog?" Peach asked.

"Well, he was-a black and red. Also, I think his-a name-a was-a Shadow or something like-a that."

"Shadow?" Luigi asked. "You're sure his name isn't Sonic?"

"Sonic? Never heard of it." Wario replied.

"That hedgehog may be affiliated to Sonic." Yoshi said.

"What makes you think that? He could easily be some hedgehog who hasn't Sonic at all." DK said.

"Oh! And he also stole one Star Emerald I found." Wario said.

"Okay, I said nothing at all." The gorilla said, sheepishly.

"Okey-dokey, Wario." Mario said. "We can help-a you fight that hedgehog you met. In exchange, you'll have-a to help us-a find the rest of-a the Star Emeralds."

"Sure, why not." Wario said, not caring much about the emeralds now and only thinking about his revenge.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, in some part of the forest, everything was calm. Suddenly, a familiar flash of light appeared briefly before letting a certain hedgehog to appear. Shadow looked around, seeing he was alone in this part of the forest. He then looked at the emerald he found.<p>

"One emerald found. Only six more to go." The hedgehog said to himself. "Spying Sonic and his comrades while behind that bush the other day is what led me to find them all. I wonder if they found any emerald so far."

Shadow then remembered what happened before his fight with Wario. He remembered traveling around until he heard the fat man nearby the haunted house. The hedgehog made sure to follow the fat man without the latter noticing him. Shadow had no idea if Wario was going to find an emerald, but he decided it was worth checking that. In the end, it was worth it solely because of the emerald.

"Shadow?"

The hedgehog turned his head around at the mention of his name. To his surprise, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Rouge were all there nearby.

"Man, it's been a while since we've seen you." Sonic said.

"Wait... You have a Star Emerald?" Tails asked while pointing at the emerald in Shadow's hand.

"Yes." The black hedgehog replied. "Did you guys find any or am I the only collecting them?"

"For your information, we found not one, but TWO emeralds." Sonic replied, smirking.

"Two? I've managed to find only one of them so far and you've already got two?" Shadow asked.

"That about sums it up, Shad." Rouge replied.

"I suppose one of us is going to suggest that I join you so we all work together to find the rest of the emeralds." Shadow said.

"Well, you pretty much suggested it yourself right now." Knuckles said.

The black hedgehog sighed at that.

"For the sake of our world... I must work with you all." He said.

"Come on! Put more joy when saying that!" Amy exclaimed in annoyance.

"Don't even waste your energy about it, Amy." Rouge said. "Shadow's always like that, you know."

"Yeah, I know. But still..."

In the following minutes, Sonic and his friends decided to sleep in the forest until the next morning. Shadow agreed to sleep as well, even though he'd preferred to spend the entire night looking for the next emerald...

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Mario and Sonic both got one new ally of their own: Wario for the former and Shadow for the latter. Things are going to get interesting for both teams...

Wario and Shadow have been introduced. Both of them are fan-favorites and I have to admit they're also among my favorite characters. I've been looking forward to use both since I've started this fanfic and I'm glad to finally be able to use them here.

And yes, Shadow was the mysterious individual from the end of Chapter 2.

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	9. Discovery in the Desert

Chapter 9: Discovery in the Desert

The next day, Sonic and his friends continued their journey to find the Star Emeralds. This time, however, Shadow joined them, bringing one emerald to them and thus allowing them to have three emeralds. As they walked through the forest, the heroes looked at Tails' device, which should allow them to find the next emerald.

"According to this device, we'll find the next one if we keep heading South." The fox said.

"Let's go then. The sooner we find it, the better." Shadow said, with determination.

"For once, I agree with you, Shadow." Sonic said. "Let's go!"

The hedgehog started running fast, with the rest of the Mobians following him. About an hour later, they arrived at the edge of the forest, which led right to a desert.

"It's in this desert?" Amy asked.

"Yep." Tails replied.

"Nothing in that desert will stop us from getting the emerald. No quicksand, no tornado and no pyramid trap will get the last laugh from us." Sonic said, smirking.

"Mario and his allies could get the last laugh out of us, though." Knuckles said.

"I forgot to add them to the list."

"Are you done talking? We still have an emerald to find." Rouge said, before flying into the desert.

"Yeah, we're done." Knuckles said before going into the desert as well.

Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Shadow didn't waste time as they too went into the desert.

* * *

><p>"Can we stop now?" Wario asked in complaint. "I'm-a so tired!"<p>

Mario and his friends, who now had the fat man with them, were making their way through some desert. They had been walking there for hours now. Unfortunately, the heat was quite hot, making most of them tired.

"Okey-dokey, Wario." Mario said, rubbing his forehead from all the sweat. "I have-a to admit the temperature is hot."

"I need to sit on-a something..." Wario then spotted some nearby rock. "Good. That'll do it."

The fat man immediately on the rock, ready to get some rest. All of sudden, the rock started to sink under the sand.

"Hey! I'm not THAT fat!" the fat man exclaimed in annoyance at the sight of the rock sinking under his weight.

Suddenly, a hole appeared nearby. The hole led to some stairs underground. Everyone looked at it in surprise.

"Good-a job, Wario!" Luigi exclaimed. "Looks like that rock was a mechanism-a to that secret entrance."

"Hum... Yeah, I already knew that from-a the start." Wario said, with his ego showing while Mario rolled his eyes.

"The Star Emerald might be there." Peach commented.

"We don't-a know that-a yet. We have-a to visit this-a place-a to be sure." Mario said before entering the hole.

Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, DK, and Wario followed the red plumber through the hole in the ground.

* * *

><p>Back with Sonic and his friends, they arrived next to some temple after a while of traveling through the desert. Tails looked at his device which indicated that the next emerald was somewhere in the temple.<p>

"Somehow, temples always managed to have something valuable inside. Looks like this one's no exception." Rouge said.

All six of them entered the temple. Inside it, it looked ancient and abandoned. There were also two doors leading to some place.

"Which door should we take?" Amy asked.

"We should split in teams of three. Three of us go through one door, and the other three go through the next one." Shadow said.

Instantly, Amy grabbed Sonic's arm.

"I'm on HIS team." She said with a smile, causing the blue hedgehog to roll his eyes.

"I'll come with Sonic too." Tails replied.

"Okay then. I'll take the left door." Sonic said, before pointing at Knuckles, Rouge, and Shadow. "You'll take the right one."

Everyone nodded before going through the respective doors. Rouge was flying in front, with Knuckles and Shadow walking behind her.

"By the way, Shadow, how did you get that emerald?" the echidna asked.

"You're asking that just to pass time, aren't you?" the black hedgehog asked back.

"It's not a crime to ask." Knuckles replied, causing Shadow to sigh.

"As weird as it sounds, I fought some fat guy wearing overalls."

"Really? That's weird because that Mario guy we have to deal with also wears overalls. Although I wouldn't say he's fat. Maybe a little bit, though."

"Mario? The fat guy I fought called himself Wario." Shadow said.

"Wario? With a name like that, I wouldn't be surprised if he was somehow related to Mario."

"I don't know. All I know is..."

Suddenly, Shadow accidentally pressed on a tiny button on the floor. This caused a trap door to open under the echidna and the hedgehog. The two of them fell down the trap door, which then closed itself. Rouge stopped flying when she noticed how silent her friends were. She turned around and, much to her surprise, realized they were both gone.

"Great..." the bat groaned. "Now, I have to save them both. Let's see which come first: the emerald or the boys."

Rouge continued on her way, making sure she wasn't activating any trap. She then arrived inside some room. At the middle of this room, there was some stand with a purple orb on it. The bat looked at the orb suspiciously before flying towards it.

"There's a high chance it might be a trap. Then again, you can't get treasures without any risk." She said with a smirk before touching the orb.

Just as she touched the orb, Rouge magically disappeared in the blink of an eye...

* * *

><p>After Mario and his friends entered the secret entrance, they walked down some stairs until they arrived inside some room. There, the heroes found about a dozen doors.<p>

"What should we do now?" DK asked.

"Let's-a split up. If each of us-a go through a different door, we have a better-a chance-a to find-a the emerald. That is, if it's-a somewhere here." Mario replied.

Everyone else nodded before going through the doors, each on their own. Yoshi was making his way through one corridor, looking curiously at the walls around him. The dinosaur then heard something coming from his stomach.

"Aw... I'm so hungry." He said sadly while rubbing his stomach. "If only there was something to eat here..."

As Yoshi arrived at the end of the corridor, he ended up inside some room. There was a stand in the middle of it, with a purple orb there. The dinosaur came a bit closer to the orb. Suddenly, he started to imagine the orb as a huge grape. The dinosaur licked his mouth eagerly.

"A grape! It looks so delicious!" Yoshi exclaimed.

Immediately, the dinosaur used his tongue to grab the orb. All of sudden, he disappeared magically as soon as he touched it...

* * *

><p>Yoshi arrived in some place he had never seen before. It looked like some sort of sanctuary, with symbols on every wall. The dinosaur whistled in amazement at the sight.<p>

"This is pretty." Yoshi said.

He then noticed something in particular at the end of the sanctuary. There was a stand with a Star Emerald on it. Next to the stand was a familiar bat. Said bat grabbed the emerald in her hand and smirked at it.

"You!" the dinosaur exclaimed as he ran towards Rouge and the emerald.

The bat turned around when she heard something. Much to her annoyance, she recognized the dinosaur who turned her into an egg not too long ago.

"Not you again!" Rouge exclaimed in annoyance. "I'll make you pay for turning me into an egg!"

"I'm not scared of you, Ms." Yoshi said with determination.

"I'll give you a reason to be." The bat said before putting the emerald in her pocket and flying towards the dinosaur.

As Rouge flied towards her opponent, she readied her fist, about to hit the dinosaur. The latter yelped as he dodged the fist by ducking on the ground. The bat flied back towards him. Yoshi used his tongue to attack his opponent.

"Oh, no! You won't get me this time!" Rouge exclaimed.

She grabbed the tongue and flied in the air with it, bringing Yoshi with her. The dinosaur groaned in pain during this time. After a while of flying in the air with it, the bat released the tongue, letting the dinosaur fall to the floor. Yoshi was dazed after this fall. He then shook his head before standing up, looking at his opponent with determination. Rouge landed on the center of the sanctuary. She motioned him to attack. He briefly looked confused at that before looking determined and charging towards her.

Just as Yoshi was about to attack her, the bat flied in the air, avoiding him. The dinosaur braked on his way before turning around. Rouge came back on the floor. Yoshi charged at her again, but the bat went back in the air again. The dinosaur brake again and looked at her going back on the floor. She smirked at him. The dinosaur frowned at her. All of sudden, he got an idea. Yoshi ran again towards her. Right before she could fly, the dinosaur turned himself into an egg with green dots and rolled fast towards her. Rouge looked at him with surprise.

"What the..."

Suddenly, the rolling egg hit her hard, causing her to be thrown away and landing on her face. The egg stopped rolling and turned back into the dinosaur.

"I can't believe I got tricked like that..." she said while glaring at Yoshi.

"I may not be the smartest, but I ain't dumb either." The dinosaur proudly said.

"It seems like it. But I won't fall for it again."

"Yeah, I was kinda afraid you'd say that." Yoshi said, sheepishly.

Rouge flied back towards the dinosaur. The latter tried his Egg Roll attack again, but she avoided it easily by flying to the side. Yoshi kept trying to hit her that way until she decided she had enough and kicked him hard. The dinosaur was thrown away and landed on his back. As he sat up, the bat landed right in front of him and punched him in the nose. Yoshi held in nose in pain.

"Ow! My nose!" the dinosaur exclaimed. "That's not nice at all!"

Yoshi stood up, frowning at the bat. He then noticed several objects lying around the sanctuary. There were some chairs, vases, tables, etc. The dinosaur smiled as he got an idea. He ran away from the bat and went towards the objects.

"Hey! Where are you going like that?" Rouge asked.

Yoshi didn't answer as he ate a chair at once. Soon after, a green-dotted egg appeared from his rear. The dinosaur did the same thing with the other objects in the sanctuary. As he kept making eggs, all those eggs were following him around. After a while, Yoshi managed to make seven eggs. He then looked back at the bat.

"What are you gonna do with these? Scrambled eggs?" Rouge asked while rolling her eyes.

"Nope! Something better!" Yoshi replied, grinning.

The dinosaur charged towards the bat once again. Rouge flied in the air again. This time, however, she pointed her legs downwards and dived towards her opponent. The bat was able to hit Yoshi again. The latter wasn't done yet as he charged towards her another time. Rouge went back in the air. Suddenly, Yoshi grabbed one of his eggs and threw it at her. She yelped as she received the egg in the face. The dinosaur kept doing that until he ran out of eggs.

The bat was annoyed by all those eggs. One thing she didn't notice was the fact she was gradually getting closer to the floor every time she received an egg. As soon as he threw his last egg at her, Yoshi flutter jumped in the air, arriving above Rouge. The dinosaur then crouched in midair and slammed his rear against Rouge's back. This had the effect of having Yoshi crushing the bat on the ground. The impact caused the emerald to be thrown away from her pocket as well. The dinosaur noticed the emerald landing a few feet away from them. Quickly, he stood up and ran towards the emerald, grabbing it with his hand.

"Yay! I found another emerald!" Yoshi exclaimed in victory, raising his hand in the air.

Rouge slowly stood up, rubbing her back in pain.

"Uh-oh." The dinosaur said when he noticed her before running back to the purple orb.

Just like before, Yoshi touched it and disappeared magically. Rouge then realized what just happened and turned around to look at the purple orb.

"Come back here, you reptile!" the bat exclaimed furiously before flying towards the purple orb.

* * *

><p>After she touched the orb, Rouge came back to where she was several minutes ago. Much to her annoyance, Yoshi was nowhere to be found. She gritted her teeth.<p>

"I'm not done with that green lizard. As clichéd as it sounds, he'll pay for this." The bat said before flying into one corridor.

All of sudden, Rouge bumped into someone. She looked and realized she was reunited with Knuckles and Shadow.

"Guys, where have you been?" she asked them.

"Long story. We'll explain to you later." Shadow replied." "Have you found anything?"

"Well... I found the emerald, but... That dinosaur stole it back from me." Rouge replied, frowning.

"Who?" the black hedgehog asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Don't worry, Shadow. I'll explain to you who that dinosaur and his allies are on our way back." Knuckles said.

"Fine. However... The enemy managed to get one more emerald. This doesn't look good." Shadow said, frowning.

"Let's see if Sonic and the others found something." the echidna said.

A few minutes later, the three of them were reunited with Sonic, Tails, and Amy.

"We found nothing. What about you guys?" Sonic asked.

"As I explained to the boys... the dinosaur stole the emerald I just found." Rouge replied.

"Oh, man..." the blue hedgehog said, slapping his forehead.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Mario, Luigi, Peach, DK, and Wario were reunited after they searched through the place they visited. At this point, they found anything at all.<p>

"By the way, as anyone seen Yoshi yet?" the gorilla asked.

The others shook their head, meaning 'no'.

"I wonder what's happening to him." Peach wondered. "Oh, I hope something terrible didn't happen to him." She said, worried about the dinosaur.

"Hey, guys!"

Everyone turned around and noticed Yoshi running towards them. The dinosaur stopped running as he arrived next to his friends. He then caught his breath after all that running.

"What took-a you so long, pal?" Mario asked his friend.

"This." The dinosaur replied as he showed them the Star Emerald he found.

Everyone looked in awe at the emerald.

"Wonderful-a job, Yoshi!" Luigi exclaimed.

"Aww, don't mention it." Yoshi said, like if it was nothing.

"So, we got three emeralds." Wario said. "That means..."

"That means-a there's only one emerald-a to find-a before-a Sonic..." Mario said with determination.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Yoshi found a Star Emerald for him and his friends. There's now only one more emerald to find. The end is getting closer, although there are still a few more chapters to go.

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	10. Mario vs Sonic

Chapter 10: Mario vs. Sonic

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"NO!" Luigi snapped in annoyance as he turned around to look at Wario. "Stop asking-a me that, Wario! We're-a not there yet!"

Mario and his friends have traveled for a while after Yoshi found the latest Star Emerald. In fact, they spent the last three days trying to find the last Star Emerald before Sonic. The plumbers and their friends knew in which direction they had to go. However, they hadn't found it yet. At this moment, Luigi was the one holding the device, hence why Wario kept asking him.

"It's-a been three days since-a we're-a walking and yet we haven't found-a that stupid emerald!" the fat man complained.

"Just be patient, Wario. We'll find it eventually." Peach said.

"Whatever..."

Luigi turned around and continued walking. All of sudden, a beeping noise was heard coming from the device. The green plumber looked at the device and grinned.

"Well, Wario... Your wish has come-a true." Luigi said.

"Oh! You mean I'm not the owner of a huge castle made entirely in gold?!" Wario asked eagerly.

Everyone else turned their head towards the fat man, all of them arching an eyebrow.

"What?"

"No, Wario." Mario said. "What Luigi meant to say is-a the fact the emerald is-a closer-a to us-a now."

"Oh. About time..."

Without wasting much time, all six heroes ran towards where the device indicated the emerald was. After a while of running, they finally stopped and gasped at what they saw. It was a huge dark castle, with a huge statue of Bowser on top. A river of lava was surrounding the castle. They all recognized as Bowser's Castle, of course. However, they noticed there was a lot of brand new technology added to the villain's lair, such as cannon, electrical barrier, etc.

"I should have seen-a that coming. The last emerald had to be inside Bowser's-a Castle." Mario commented. He then frowned before turning his head towards Donkey Kong. "DK, keep an eye on Peach. Just in case-a Bowser comes in and kidnaps her again."

"Got it, Mario." The gorilla nodded before keeping an eye on the princess.

"Hmm. Come-a to think of it, I wonder what Bowser's-a been-a doing since-a the last time-a we saw him." Luigi said.

"I don't know, but I find it odd how his castle is now filled with technology." Peach said. "It must have fused with a building filled with this kind of technology."

"I wouldn't be surprised if we had to fight Bowser here. We usually fight Bowser at the end of our adventures." Yoshi commented

"Not always, but it's-a true nonetheless." Mario said. "Now, let's-a go!"

Mario and his friends ran to the large door of Bowser's Castle. All six of them entered the castle through it. They arrived inside some large room. The room was shaped like a cube. On each side, near the ceiling, there were walkways with barriers to prevent people from falling. The floor was covered with a black and white checkerboard, almost making it look like a giant chess. The walls all looked like a bunch of stones put on each other, all in dark green. Suddenly, one robot appeared. It looked like a spherical orange thing, with arms, legs and a head.

"Eh, I didn't know Bowser was-a making-a robots in his spare-a time." Wario said, grinning.

Without warning, one of the robots shot at Mario. The latter narrowly dodged the blast. The plumber frowned at the robot before summoning his hammer. He ran towards the robot, dodging the latter's blasts while doing so. Soon enough, Mario hit the robot several times with his hammer, destroying it. The plumber stopped and sighed in relief.

"Done!" he said.

"Hum... Mario?" Luigi said as he pointed at something.

The red plumber turned his head around and noticed an entire army of robots, ready to fight.

"Okey-dokey. This time, let's all fight them!" Mario exclaimed before charging with his hammer.

The others joined the fight as they fought the robots. Mario and Luigi used their jumping abilities and hammers. Yoshi ate several robots, turned them into eggs and used them against other robots. Peach used her ability to float in the air and summoning vegetables from the ground to get rid of the mechanical beings. As for Donkey Kong and Wario, they of course used their strength to punch and kick the robots until there would be no one left. Several minutes later, the six heroes destroyed all the robots that were present in this room.

"Who's the best? It's-a Wario, of course!" Wario exclaimed in victory before laughing maniacally.

"I hope the emerald's in the next room." Yoshi said.

Mario and his friends went through another door, which led to some other room. There, they came across another army of robots. The plumber and his friends got themselves ready to fight.

"Looks-a like it's only the beginning. YIHAA!" Mario exclaimed before charging alongside the others.

Just like before, the heroes used their respective abilities to get rid of the mechanical beings. It took more or less the same amount of time as before until the robots were all defeated.

"Who's the best? It's-a Wario, of course!" Wario exclaimed in victory before laughing maniacally, once again.

They opened another door, which led, much to their frustration, to ANOTHER army of robots. Mario sighed in tiredness.

"Let's-a end this once and for all. Here we go!" he exclaimed before the third fight begun.

Once again, the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom were fighting against a whole bunch of robots inside one room from Bowser's Castle. The fight ended when Wario crushed the last robot with his big butt.

"Who's the best? It's-a Wario, of course!" Wario exclaimed in victory before laughing maniacally for the third time.

"What are you trying to do?" DK asked. "Establish a new catchphrase?"

"And what's-a wrong with that, Mr. 'Banana-Slama'?" Wario rhetorically asked.

"Well, I just think you shouldn't say the same sentence several times in a row. Just wait a while between each time you're saying it. If you use it too many times in a row, people will get tired of hearing it. Look at me. I'm already tired of hearing you saying it three times, and it's only been less than an hour since you've started saying that." The gorilla replied.

"Look, I didn't come here to get a lesson about-a catchphrase-a from a stupid-a monkey." The fat man snapped.

"Say that again..." DK said in a threatening tone.

"Guys, it's not the time for this. We still got the emerald to find." Peach pointed out.

DK and Wario nodded before joining the others. All of them were ready to go through the next door. Mario opened the door and entered the next room, followed by his friends. This room was different from the others. Instead of being shaped like a cube, it was shaped like a cylinder. There were also no walkways above. At the center of the room was a stand, with the last Star Emerald sitting on it. They looked in awe as they finally found what they were looking for.

"We did it!" Yoshi exclaimed as he jumped in the air.

"Woo-ooh! We did it!" Mario exclaimed as well.

Suddenly, they heard some noise. On the other end of the room was some door that was gradually being opened...

* * *

><p>Three days after Rouge fought Yoshi, Sonic and his friends were still trying to locate the last emerald. At this moment, they walked in one direction, with Tails holding the device to find the emeralds.<p>

"I hope we'll be able to find it soon." Amy commented.

"Don't worry about it, Amy. We already have three emeralds. That's almost half the amount we have to find." Sonic said.

"Sonic, Mario and his allies also have three emeralds." Tails said. "For now, they have as much powers as we do. But if they find the last emerald..."

"I hope we'll be able to find the Master Emerald as well. We haven't come across it since this whole adventure started several days ago." Knuckles said.

"Speaking of which, don't you find it odd that we haven't seen Eggman since then?" the blue hedgehog asked.

"I have no idea where that doctor is, but I'm glad he hasn't caused us much trouble recently." Shadow said.

"Shadow's got a point. Having to deal with Eggman as well as that plumber and his friends would just complicate things for us." Rouge said.

"Oh!" Tails exclaimed as he heard a beeping noise from the device. "This way!"

The fox ran in one direction, with the rest of the Mobians following him. Several minutes of running later, the six of them arrived next to some building. It looked some dark castle, with technology added in and a river of lava around. Eggman's face was also seen above the huge door leading into it.

"Speaking of the devil..." Rouge said.

"So, that explains something. Eggman must have been busy building himself another hideout after the last one was destroyed." Sonic said.

"If Eggman is the one with the emerald, then get ready to fight, everyone." Tails said.

They all nodded before coming near the door. It seemed to be locked, however.

"Knuckles, could you open the door, please?" the blue hedgehog asked politely.

"With pleasure, Sonic." The echidna said, smirking.

Knuckles used all his strength before giving several punches at the door, causing it to fall down and allowing the heroes to enter the castle. Soon, they arrived inside some large room, which was shaped like a cube. While the floor was covered with a black and white checkerboard, the walls were all dark green and looked like a bunch of stones put on each other. Also, some walkways with barriers were on each side of the room, near the ceiling. As the heroes made their way through the room, they stopped as soon as a Goomba appeared in front of them.

"Geez. Eggman's robots are getting uglier these days." Sonic said as he looked at the creature.

"A robot?! I'm NOT a robot! I'm a Goomba!" the Goomba exclaimed, offended. "For crying out loud, you thought I was a robot? That's just stupid!"

"What do you want?" Amy asked.

"I'm here to beat this blue hedgehog. Come here! I'll show you who's the strongest!"

Suddenly, Sonic jumped on the Goomba, crushing the latter.

"Ouch." The creature said.

"Man, that's by the far the easiest fight I've ever done." The blue hedgehog said, smirking.

All of sudden, a whole hundreds of Goombas appeared from out of nowhere.

"Okay then. It won't be as easy, but it still won't be much of a challenge either." Sonic said, still smirking before running towards the Goombas and hitting them.

Sonic wasn't the only one to fight as the rest of his friends joined the fight as well. Tails jumped on as much Goombas as he could. Knuckles used his strength. Amy used her Piko Piko Hammer against the creatures. Rouge kicked several of them. In the case of Shadow, he used his speed against them. After a while, all the Goombas were in bad shape, most of them groaning in pain from this fight. Suddenly, Knuckles felt something as he looked around. The others noticed that.

"What is it, Knux?" Tails asked.

"I can feel the energy of the Master Emerald here!" the echidna replied. "Go find the Star Emerald. I'll go find the Master Emerald."

The others nodded before Knuckles ran on his way towards where he felt the energy coming. The other five Mobians opened the door and arrived in another room. There, they came across more Goombas than before.

"Not again!" Amy complained.

"This should be ended in only a few minutes, no more." Sonic said, smirking before fighting the Goombas again.

Tails, Amy, Rouge, and Shadow also fought the creatures, using their respective abilities. The fight ended soon after. The Mobians went through another door. For once, the next room had no Goomba at all. Instead, it had a whole bunch of Koopa Troopas.

"We have to fight turtles now? This is just getting weirder." Rouge commented.

"Koopa Troopas!" one of the Koopa Troopas exclaimed to the others. "Get ready to fight them now!"

"Nah. You should just get ready to go to the hospital now." The blue hedgehog said, smirking another time before charging towards the Koopa Troopas.

All five Mobians managed to get rid of the turtles several minutes later. Sonic then opened the next door. The Mobians entered the room. Unlike all the other room before, this one was shaped like a cylinder instead of being shaped like a cube. Also, there were no walkways. They then noticed the last Star Emerald at the center of the room, on a stand.

"Alright, we found it!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Not-a you again!"

The blue hedgehog looked to where he heard that familiar voice and noticed a certain plumber on the other side of the room.

"Mario!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Sonic!" Mario exclaimed.

* * *

><p>The plumber immediately ran towards the last Star Emerald. Soon after, Sonic ran towards the emerald as well. Surprisingly, they both grabbed the emerald at the same time. Both adversaries struggled to take the emerald away from the other. After a while of struggling, they accidentally let go of the emerald, which landed next to one of the walls. Soon after, Mario and Sonic looked at each other, frowning. The hedgehog then got an idea.<p>

"You know what, Mario? How about we make a deal?" Sonic asked.

"What?"

"Have you ever noticed how our various fights between you and me or between your allies and my friends ended up with the winner taking the emerald?"

"Yeah? And so? You want to fight-a myself and the winner will-a take-a the last emerald?" the plumber asked.

"Well, let's take a step further. Whoever wins the fight between you and me not only wins the last emerald... but also wins ALL the emeralds the loser's team has." The hedgehog said, with determination in his eyes.

The majority of their respective friends gasped at what Sonic just said. Most of them were shocked by what the hedgehog suggested.

"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed as he was about to run towards the hedgehog. "You can't do..."

Shadow held his arm in front of the fox, preventing him from coming closer to where Sonic was.

"He knows what he's doing." The black hedgehog said.

Tails didn't know what to say. On one hand, he knew Sonic might have a chance at defeating Mario. On the other hand, he was putting the safety of the emeralds at risk with that.

"So?" Sonic asked the plumber, waiting for an answer.

Mario thought about it for a while. Soon enough, he found an answer.

"Okey-dokey, it's a deal." The red plumber replied.

"Wait, Mario! You can't be serious about that!" Peach exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it, Peach. Don't worry at all." Her boyfriend replied.

The princess was worried about this whole thing. However, she knew she wouldn't be able to win an argument with the plumber, so she decided to let him do what he felt was right. Meanwhile, Wario glared at Shadow. The latter noticed that, but decided to ignore him. This caused the fat man to get frustrated of being ignored like that. At the same time, Mario and Sonic looked at each other. Both had determination showing on their face. They were about to use all their strength to beat the other. This was a fight they knew they shouldn't make any mistake, or else the consequences would be extremely bad.

"Ready, Mario?" Sonic asked.

"Ready, Sonic!" Mario replied.

"Then... let's start this fight NOW!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

Sonic started to charge his Spin Dash. He then unleashed it against Mario. The latter jumped over the hedgehog to avoid getting hit. Sonic braked and turned around. He charged his Spin Dash again and hurt the plumber. Mario was thrown against the nearest wall, hurting his head. The plumber was dazed as he stood up. He tried to walk normally despite being dazed. He finally got back to his senses before summoning his hammer. The plumber tried to hit the hedgehog, but the latter kept dodging the weapon. After a while, Sonic received the hammer on his head, making him fall on his face.

"You're quite strong, plumber." He said as he stood back up.

"Well, thank you very much, hedgehog." Mario said.

"But I'm much stronger than you." Sonic added, smirking.

"That's something we'll have-a to see." The plumber said.

Mario took his hammer and aimed the hedgehog. The latter avoided it and ran behind the plumber. Sonic tapped his shoulder, causing Mario to turn around.

"You won't hit me. And you know why? Because I'm awesome." The hedgehog said, grinning.

The plumber tried to hit him, but Sonic used his speed to immediately put himself behind him.

"I've went through tons of stuff and I've always made it through alive." The hedgehog added.

Mario tried to hit him again, but his opponent avoided it again and was behind him again.

"And I'm the fastest thing alive!" Sonic shouted.

The plumber then got an idea. He tried to hit Sonic again. As soon as the latter was running back to behind the plumber, the latter put his hammer vertically and did a rotation of 180 degree towards the hedgehog.

"You're as slow as a..."

Sonic was interrupted as the hammer hit him fast and sent him to crush himself against the wall. The hedgehog slowly unstuck himself from the wall and landed back on the floor.

"...snail." he said, ending his sentence.

Meanwhile, Rouge noticed Amy writing something on a sheet of paper.

"What are you doing?" the bat asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm taking some notes about Mario's fighting skills with his hammer." The pink hedgehog replied. "I could use that with my Piko Piko Hammer next time I fight someone!"

Sonic came back to his senses and stood back up.

"Okay. Take that!" he exclaimed.

The hedgehog started to use his Homing Attack several times against the plumber. Mario fell on his back after a while of getting hit by that attack.

"Mamma Mia!" he exclaimed as he stood back. "Come-a here, porcupine."

"I'm a hedgehog!" Sonic exclaimed before running towards the plumber.

The mustached man jumped and landed on the hedgehog's head before landing on the ground. Sonic fell on his face and hurt his nose. He made a fighting stance before charging another Spin Dash and hurt Mario at once. The latter hit the wall again. Mario then ran back to where Sonic was before trying to punch him in the face.

The hedgehog, being faster, punched him in his own face. The plumber groaned from that. However, Mario was still able to kick his opponent's legs. In answer to that, Sonic punched the plumber's right arm. The latter then hit his face with his knee. This caused Sonic to land on his back and rubbed his face in pain.

"I don't want to sound like someone who's winning, but... Maybe you should give up." Mario said, while looking down at Sonic.

"If you knew me very well... then you would know I never give up!" the hedgehog said, smirking.

He quickly stood up, grabbed Mario's shoulders and hit the plumber's head with his own. The plumber yelped in alarm, groaning in pain. Sonic then gave a punch at his face, making him land on his stomach.

"It's gonna be over for you, Mario!" Sonic exclaimed.

Discreetly, the mustached man took a Fire Flower from his pocket and swallowed it. Soon after, his clothes changed, turning him into Fire Mario.

"I wouldn't-a say that yet if I were you." The plumber said as he stood up, with determination in his eyes.

The hedgehog remembered that power. He decided to run away to avoid getting hit by that. Mario started throwing fireballs from his hands. Sonic avoided some fireballs while running, but he got hit by some others. Suddenly, he got an idea. The hedgehog decided to run as fast as he could, gaining as much speed as possible. After a while of running like that, Sonic started running full speed around the plumber. The latter still tried to hit him with his fireballs. Mario had the impression of being stuck in the middle of a small tornado.

Much to his surprise, he was soon not able to continue making fireballs. As much as he tried to make them, no fireballs came from his hands. This was rather strange due to the fact he still had his fire outfit, so he should have been able to make fireballs. Eventually, Mario felt dazed as he looked at the hedgehog running around him like that. All of sudden, Sonic charged towards him and hit him, sending the plumber face first to the ground. This also had the effect of making him lose his fire power, thus changing his clothes back to normal.

"What the... What just happened?" Mario asked, confused as he stood up.

"Fire needs oxygen to exist. All I did was creating a circle where oxygen would get suck into my small tornado. Just enough so that you could still breathe, though." Sonic replied.

"Admittedly, this was-a quite-a smart." The plumber said. "However, you will lose-a the fight-a nonetheless!"

Mario took his hammer, ran towards the hedgehog, jumped in the air and tried to hit his opponent. Sonic moved faster than the plumber, causing the latter to have his hammer hit the floor instead. The hedgehog then jumped onto Mario and tackled him to the floor. He tried to restrain his opponent to the floor by sitting on his body and pinning his hands against the ground.

"There's nothing you can do to beat me." Sonic said.

"I still have-a one more-a chance." Mario said.

"Which is...?"

The plumber used all his strength to free one of his hands and grab one mushroom from his pocket. He ate the mushroom immediately and felt his body being filled with energy. Mario then used all his strength to throw Sonic away, allowing himself to stand up. As the hedgehog stood up, the plumber immediately punched him in the face. He then readied his fist before punching Sonic hard enough to send him in the air. The latter then fell on his head. The hedgehog went back on his feet.

"Tails! Send me an invincibility capsule!" he exclaimed to his friend.

"Luigi! Send me a star!" Mario exclaimed to his brother.

Tails threw an invincibility capsule to the hedgehog, while Luigi threw a star at the plumber. Both adversaries became invincible. Mario ran towards Sonic and tried to give him a punch. His opponent blocked his attack by doing the same thing. The mustached man wasn't even feeling pain. He gave another punch to the blue blur. The latter wasn't feeling pain either. For a while, one tried to hit the other and vice-versa. None of them were feeling pain due to their respective invincibility. Then, Mario and Sonic lost their invincibility and came back to normal.

"Okay then. Let's end this-a without any power-ups!" the plumber exclaimed.

"Time to finish this!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

Sonic charged towards Mario. They gave to each other several punches and kicks at once. The plumber then punched Sonic hard enough to send him to the other side of the room. The hedgehog stood up soon after. Then, both opponents charged towards each other.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!" they yelled at the same time.

* * *

><p>One hour earlier...<p>

Inside some surveillance room, Bowser and Eggman were looking at some TV monitors. Those monitors were all connected to various cameras set all around their hideout. The villains were sitting on chairs. Bowser looked bored at this moment.

"Oh... This is so boring!" the dragon complained.  
>"Patience, my friend." The scientist said. "The heroes will here at any moment."<p>

"How can you say that? We have no idea if they're close to our hideout, or if they have all the other Star Emeralds!"

"Indeed, we have no idea. However, I know they will come here eventually. It's only a matter of time."

"I just hope it won't take them a whole year to find those emeralds. It would be..."

"Look!" Eggman exclaimed as he pointed at one monitor.

On this monitor, they could see Mario and his friends coming towards the castle.

"Yes! Alright! They finally appeared!" Bowser exclaimed in delight.

"Wait... Who are these three guys with them?" the scientist asked.

"Huh?" The dragon took a look at the monitor. "Oh. I see. Mario managed to get Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong to join him on his quest."

"Oh! This is even better!" Eggman exclaimed as he pointed to another monitor.

Sonic and his friends appeared on that monitor Eggman was pointing at.

"Oh-ho! And it looks like Shadow, Amy and Rouge came here too. Even with their help, Sonic won't stand a chance against us!" the scientist exclaimed in delight.

"Oh, this is exciting! I'm gonna make some popcorn." Bowser said before leaving the room.

"Good idea. Bring me a bowl of popcorn as well!" Eggman said before looking back at the monitors. He then realized something. "Wait a minute... Popcorn? Of course!"

The scientist then grabbed a book from a nearby table and wrote something in it.

"That was one of the missing words in my crosswords. Hmm... Come to think of it, I've got several other words I've gotta find. Let's get to it!" he said before continuing his crosswords.

Meanwhile, Bowser was making his way towards some kitchen. Suddenly, he noticed a door he never noticed. Without any hesitation, the dragon went through it. He arrived in some room that was as large as a bedroom. The only things there were a chair, a desk and a bed. On top of the desk, Bowser noticed a book. He took the book and read its title.

"What's this? 'Dr. Eggman's Evil Schemes'? Maybe I should read a few pages..."

The dragon started reading the book, looking at some pages. After a while, he burst out laughing.

"Bwahahahahaha!" Bowser laughed. "This is such a funny book! Oh, but I don't have the time to read it now. I'll read it after ruling the world."

The dragon then whistled, causing a Koopa Troopa to arrive next to him.

"You called me, master?" the Koopa Troopa asked.

"Yep. Put that book in my personal stuff."

"Yes, master."

The Koopa Troopa grabbed the book and left. Bowser then left the room, getting ready to make some popcorn.

* * *

><p>Almost one hour later...<p>

Knuckles searched around the castle to find the Master Emerald. At this moment, the echidna was making his way inside some ventilation duct. After a while, he stopped near some grill and opened it. Knuckles dropped down, arriving next to a Goomba.

"An intruder!" the Goomba yelled. "I repeat, an intrud..."

The creature was interrupted as the echidna punched him hard enough to crush him. Knuckles then continued on his way to find the Master Emerald. Soon after, he noticed some door. Knuckles opened the door and went into some room with several TV monitors. He noticed two individuals sitting on some chairs while also looking at one screen in particular. On that screen, they were to watch Mario and Sonic fighting each other.

"What a show! Mario getting his butt kicked by Sonic! That's great art!" Bowser exclaimed.

"King Augustus?! Eggman!?" Knuckles exclaimed as he recognized them.

The villains yelped in alarm before turning around to face the echidna.

"Knuckles!" the mad scientist exclaimed. "What a surprise to see you there."

"Oh, I get it." Knuckles said before getting into a fighting stance. "You were behind all this once again. You allied yourself with King Augustus to trick us into getting the Star Emeralds for you!"

"That would be correct, Knuckles. And just like when we first met, you've got tricked! And this time, even Sonic and the others were tricked!"

Knuckles frowned. He always hated it whenever someone would trick him like that, especially if it was Eggman.

"By the way, my name is Bowser. NOT Augustus." Bowser said.

"Your name could be Bob, I wouldn't care. You guys have the Master Emerald and you're gonna give it back to me!" the echidna exclaimed.

The latter charged at the dragon. Bowser slashed him with his claws, causing the echidna to be knocked over and landing on his back. Immediately, Eggman pushed on a nearby button, causing Knuckles to be trapped inside some cage made of glass. The guardian hit the glass as hard as he could, but it wouldn't break.

"You two are gonna regret it!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I don't care, Knucklehead. Now, let's join our guests." Eggman said to Bowser.

"Oh, yeah. The time has come!" the dragon exclaimed.

* * *

><p>"Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!"<p>

Mario and Sonic blocked each other's punch as they continued fighting. They kept fighting until they heard some rumble. As both heroes stopped their fight, everyone in the room looked up and noticed the ceiling being opened in a half. Soon enough, Bowser appeared in the air, riding his Koopa Clown Car.

"Bowser!" Mario exclaimed.

"Bowser? Don't you mean 'King Augustus'?" Sonic asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No, hedgehog. The plumber is right. My name is Bowser!" the dragon exclaimed. "Augustus was just a false name to cover my real identity. Also, I'm not alone here."

A few seconds later, Eggman appeared while riding his Eggmobile.

"Dr. Allen!" Mario exclaimed.

"Okay, you're wrong on that one. His name is Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Sonic is right, plumber. I am the magnificent Dr. Eggman!" the mad scientist exclaimed. "By the way, we have a good friend of Sonic with us."

He pushed a button, causing the glass cage to appear from the ceiling as well.

"Knuckles!" Sonic exclaimed at the sight of seeing his friend inside the glass cage.

"Now, if you don't mind, we're gonna take something from you all." Eggman said, smirking.

He pushed another button. This caused a giant vacuum to appear. The vacuum then started sucking all seven Star Emeralds, causing all the heroes to yelp in alarm.

"Perfect! We've got all the emeralds!" Bowser exclaimed in victory. "With that said, you will all pay for the misfortunes you've caused to us in the past!"

Another vacuum appeared. This one was connected to the glass cage. A few seconds later, it started sucking all the heroes, all of them trying their best to avoid the vacuum. Unfortunately, they failed escaping the vacuum and screamed as they were sucked inside of it, on their way towards the glass cage...

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Bowser and Eggman revealed themselves to the heroes and managed to get all the Star Emeralds at once. That means Mario and Sonic don't have much reason to hate each other. So, what are they gonna do? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Read and review!


	11. United

First of all, I have to say the following chapter is shorter than usual. I apologize to anyone who doesn't like the fact it's too short. I promise the next chapter after this one will be much longer, though. With that said, here's the newest chapter.

Chapter 11: United

After getting sucked into the vacuum, all the heroes ended up in the same glass cage where Knuckles was. The majority of them groaned before standing up.

"Mamma Mia! We gotta break this-a cage-a right now!" Mario exclaimed.

"Let's do it!" Sonic exclaimed.

Just as the heroes ran to the various sides of the cage to try to destroy it, Wario prevented Shadow from going further.

"Hold on a minute! I want-a my revenge!" the fat man exclaimed.

"Not now, fatty." The black hedgehog said as he was about to run to the side.

"Hey!" Wario yelled while preventing the Ultimate Lifeform from going further again. "I'm-a not fat! I have-a muscles to prove it! I want-a my revenge-a now!"

"It's neither the time, nor the place to fight you, Wario. Eggman and Bowser managed to capture us. We need to escape and stop their plans once and for all." Shadow said.

"I don't-a care-a what these-a two are up to! I just want to fight you and prove-a that I'm-a superior to you!"

"I don't care what you want. I've made a promise to Maria to protect my planet. And I'm not gonna let these two taking over it."

"Maria? Oh! Is that your girlfriend? Kissy-kissy!" Wario said teasingly.

"No. She was the only friend I had years ago." The black hedgehog said, frowning at the fat man.

"And where is she now? Baking you some-a cookies?" the fat man asked, in a teasing tone again.

"No. She's dead." He replied, still frowning

Soon after, there was a silence that lasted about twenty seconds. However, that silence felt like an eternity. Hearing what Shadow just said, Wario was speechless.

"Ooh... Awkward." The fat man said, looking down and scratching the back of his head.

The black hedgehog took a deep breath, thinking about horrible events in his life.

"I'm not an average hedgehog. Far from it. I'm actually an experiment, created by Pr. Gerald Robotnik. His granddaughter, Maria, had a rare disease. The professor created me in the hopes of finding a cure for her. When I was created, she was the only friend I had. I have nothing but great memories of the times we passed together. But then... Militaries came to shut down the project the professor was working on. I was frozen for 50 years. As for Maria... she... I don't want... to remember it."

Shadow was clutching his fist, feeling pain as he thought about the fate of his friend. The black hedgehog turned around and ran to the side of the cage. Wario stood there, for the first time feeling bad about something.

"Boy... That's-a depressing." He said before shaking his head. "What's-a going on with me? I'm-a not-a supposed to have a conscience!" he yelled in annoyance.

After thinking about it, he groaned furiously before catching up with the black hedgehog.

"Okay, look... I'm-a sorry about what I just said." The fat man said. "I can't-a believe I said those-a words-a together." He said to himself. "But... Hum... If I can do anything to help you..."

"Breaking this cage and helping me fight Eggman and Bowser would be a good start." Shadow said before looking at the fat man.

"This cage doesn't resist against the mighty Wario!" the fat man exclaimed before running to the side of the cage.

The black hedgehog nodded before running towards the side of the cage as well. At the same time, the rest of the heroes were busy trying to break the cage to escape. Knuckles was the only one not doing that since he already tried to break it earlier.

"Guys!" the echidna exclaimed, getting everyone's attention. "It's just no use. I've tried to break this cage with all my strength. It just won't break."

"He's right." DK said. "I've just tried it myself. That cage is too solid to break."

Everyone else was disappointed to hear that. They now had no idea how to get out of this cage.

"Mamma Mia!" Luigi exclaimed as he sat down, looking defeated. "How are we gonna get out of here?"

Everyone tried to think of something that could free them from this cage. Mario tried his hardest to find an idea, but he wasn't able to find any. He sighed in frustration. The plumber then looked to his right and noticed Sonic, also thinking. Mario thought about everything that just happened. It was now time they had to talk. The plumber came right next to the hedgehog. The latter noticed the former and looked at him.

"So... You're-a not a villain?" Mario asked.

Sonic smirked as he heard that.

"I could ask you the same question. I'm guessing we would both answer 'no'." the hedgehog said.

"That's-a what I thought."

"Who is this Bowser guy?" Sonic asked.

"My archenemy. The evil-a king of all-a the Koopas, ready to take over the Mushroom-a Kingdom." The plumber replied. "What about Dr. Eggman?"

"My archenemy as well. He's no king, but he's one heck of a mad scientist. It's too bad for him that I always foil his plan of taking over the world." The hedgehog replied.

"Hmm... They tricked us into fighting each other just so they could have-a the emeralds-a to themselves."

"Yeah, I think that pretty much sums up the whole situation." Sonic said.

"Honestly, I feel-a bad for thinking-a you were-a my enemy." Mario said, looking a bit ashamed.

"Nah, don't feel so bad. We were both tricked into fighting each other. There was no way anyone could have figured out the other wasn't a bad guy. It's neither your fault nor mine. It's Eggman and Bowser's fault if this happened. So... Don't feel bad about it." The hedgehog said.

Hearing what Sonic just said, Mario smiled. The hedgehog was right about it. The plumber felt a lot better at this moment.

"Still, I would-a like to apologize-a for thinking you were-a my enemy, Sonic."

"I may as well apologize too, Mario."

Sonic held his hand, waiting for Mario to shake it. A few seconds later, the plumber grabbed the hedgehog's hand and shook it. They both smiled at each other, reconciling once and for all. Seeing this happening, their respective friends realized it was now time to reconcile as well. Yoshi and Rouge looked at each other.

"Hey, Ms. Bat. I'm sorry for thinking you were a villainess." The dinosaur said.

"Well, honestly, I'm not a heroine all the time, but I'm not a villainess all the time either, dino-boy." The bat said. "Still, I accept your apology... if you promise to never turn me into an egg again!"

"I promise!" the dinosaur said before shaking her hand.

"Hey... hum... What's-a your name again?" Luigi asked the fox as he stood up.

"I'm Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails." The latter replied.

"Okay then. Listen, Tails. I'm-a sorry that we had to fight."

"I'm just as sorry as you are... Hum..."

"Luigi."

"Thanks." Tails said before shaking Luigi's hand, the two of them smiling at each other.

DK and Knuckles then looked at each other.

"Hey, big guy... Hum, I hope I didn't hurt you too much during our fight." The echidna said.

"Eh, I've been through worse. You were still a great opponent though. I like your style." The gorilla said, smirking.

"I like yours, too." Knuckles said, smirking as well.

Instead of shaking their hands like the others, they bumped their fists together. Soon after, Peach and Amy came right next to each other.

"So... You're a princess?" the pink hedgehog asked while looking at the blonde-haired woman's crown.

"Yes, I am." She replied.

"Do I have to call you 'your majesty' or something like that?" Amy asked, nervous about talking to a royalty.

"Friends of mine call me Peach. Call me that as well." The princess replied, smiling.

"Wait... 'Friends of mine'... You consider me, Amy Rose, to be your friend?"

"I can tell from our fight that you are filled with spirit and I'd be glad to be your friend."

Amy briefly smiled before remembering something.

"Wait a second. I remember our fight. I remember it ended with me losing consciousness underwater. Then, Sonic told me you brought me back on the surface. Why did you do that?"

"I wouldn't let anyone die like that, even if it was my enemy. That's all." Peach replied.

"Well... I'm glad you had a good enough heart to save me, Peach." She said before smiling at the princess.

"My pleasure." The blonde-haired woman said before hugging Amy, who then hugged her back.

"Okay! Alright! That's enough!" Wario exclaimed in annoyance, getting everyone's attention. "Have you guys-a forgot we're still-a trapped in this-a cage!?"

"Wario's right. We have to find a way out of here." Shadow said.

"Got any idea, buddy?" Sonic asked Tails.

The fox gave more thought about it. Suddenly, he found an idea as he snapped his fingers.

"I think I know what we could do. There's probably a weak spot on this cage. We just need to find this weak spot and we'll use it to make a hole in it and escape." Tails replied.

Everyone nodded at that and tried to find the weak spot. They gently tapped everywhere on the glass. After a while, Rouge was the one who found it.

"Over here, guys." The bat said to the others.

"So, what do we do now?" Luigi asked.

"The strongest ones among us will use their strength to punch a hole on this weak spot." Tails said.

"Let me handle this!" Wario exclaimed as he came next to the weak spot.

"You ain't the only one to be strong here, Wario." DK said as both him and Knuckles came near the weak spot.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Let's-a just end this already."

Using all their strengths, the three strong ones punched as hard as they could on the weak spot at once, causing it to shatter and make a hole.

"There you go." Knuckles said, motioning the others to go through the hole. "Just make sure you don't step on any glass. It can give you a cut."

Several seconds later, all twelve heroes were out of the cage, all of them standing now on the floor.

"So... what's next?" Yoshi asked.

"It's pretty obvious. We go see Eggman and Bowser and we fight them until they give us the Star Emeralds back." Sonic said.

"For the first time, we're-a gonna fight as a team, not as rivals." Mario said.

"You got that right, Mario." The hedgehog said, smirking.

The plumber smirked at him.

"Alright, everyone. Let's show to Eggman and Bowser they haven't won yet and they never will!" Sonic exclaimed.

"YEAH!" everyone, except Mario and Sonic, exclaimed in excitement.

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

Mario, Sonic and their respective friends are now united against the villains. The next chapter will see plenty of action happening.

Read and review!


	12. Attack of the Egg Koopa

Last Monday, it's been a year since I started this fanfic. Yeah, a bit ironic that I published the first chapter on April Fool's Day (should have published that a day later when I think about it, but whatever). Anyway, here's the next chapter. We're getting closer to the end...

Chapter 12: Attack of the Egg Koopa

The heroes cheered as they managed to free themselves from the cage.

"What's going on here!?"

They turned around to see Eggman appearing on a platform above them.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" the mad scientist exclaimed in annoyance. "How did you manage to get free?"

"Does it really matter if you know the answer?" DK asked.

"Yes, because that way I'll be able to not repeat the same mistake the next time I'll try to capture you all. It's that simple!"

"Forget about it, Eggman. Just give us the Star Emeralds already if you don't want to receive pain." Sonic said.

"It won't be possible." Bowser said as he appeared next to Eggman. "The Star Emeralds are already being used for Eggman's latest invention."

"Here's that latest invention for all of you. Behold... the Egg Koopa!" the mad scientist loudly exclaimed as he pushed on a button from a remote control he had in his hands.

During the following moment, the wall under the villains opened itself in a half. Coming from that wall was a giant mechanical being. It looked like a giant Koopa Troopa made entirely of metal. It was so huge, it reached the ceiling.

"Have fun, idiots!" Bowser exclaimed before leaving with the mad scientist.

The heroes took their fighting stances as they got ready to fight the robotic turtle. The latter started walking towards them. It left its right foot and was about to stomp the heroes with them.

"Run, everyone!" Mario yelled.

They didn't need to listen to him as they instinctively ran away from being crushed by the robotic turtle. Knuckles then turned around to look at it before looking at DK.

"Ready to fight, DK?" the echidna asked.

"I sure do, Knuckles." The gorilla replied.

"I've got an idea. Just throw me at the robot."

"Okay then."

The primate grabbed the guardian and threw him as high as he could towards the Egg Koopa. Knuckles put his fist in front of him and used it to punch the robot hard enough. It caused the Egg Koopa to almost lose his balance. However, it was still able to avoid falling on its back. The echidna then landed back on the ground by gliding.

"Wow! That robot doesn't seem to have taken much damage." Tails commented.

"I think it did get a little bit of it-a nonetheless." Luigi said.

Suddenly, the Egg Koopa started shooting lasers from its eyes. The heroes ran away, avoiding the lasers as much as they could. Soon enough, Wario and Shadow were standing next to each other, looking at the Egg Koopa.

"You have an idea?" the black hedgehog asked the fat man.

"Yeah. I suggest we just-a go eat-a some hamburger. I'm-a starving!" Wario replied.

"No. I mean an idea to defeat this robot."

"Oh. Well, I've-a got none."

"Idiot." Shadow said to himself while rolling his eyes.

The black hedgehog looked at the Egg Koopa's legs. An idea came to him.

"You think you're strong enough to hit its legs?"

"Look at those-a muscles!" Wario exclaimed, flexing his muscles. "You don't even need-a to ask-a that question!"

Shadow whispered something in the fat man's ear. The latter nodded a few times before giving a thumbs up. The black hedgehog nodded before running in front of the Egg Koopa.

"Hey! Bucket of bolts! Try to catch me if you can!" he shouted at the robot.

The latter started shooting lasers at the Ultimate Lifeform. Shadow ran around the Egg Koopa, distracting it. At the same time, Wario arrived next to the robot's legs, smirking. The fat man used all his strength to give several hits in a row to the left leg. After a while, it was destroyed. Wario then turned his attention to the right leg and gave it the same treatment.

After it was destroyed, the Egg Koopa started losing its balance, about to fall on the fat man. Suddenly, Shadow arrived next to Wario, grabbed his hand and ran away with him, using his super speed. They stopped at one place as they watched the robot falling on its back.

"I don't-a say that often, but... Good-a job, Shadow!" Wario said.

"You should lose weight." Shadow said.

"Hey!" the fat man exclaimed in annoyance.

All of sudden, the Egg Koopa stood back up as its legs were now replaced with jets. The robot was able to fly in the air at this moment.

"It can fly now... but it will fall down soon." The black hedgehog said.

"Oh, boy!" Yoshi said. "What are we gonna do?"

"I know what we're gonna do." Rouge said as she landed next to the dinosaur. "Just hang on." she said while grabbing him and lifting him in the air.

"Whoa!"

The bat brought Yoshi in the air. She then looked carefully at the robot before looking back at the dinosaur.

"Remember how you managed to defeat me?" Rouge asked him.

"By doing a Ground Pound?"

"Whatever you call it, just do it."

"Okay, Ms. Bat."

"Just call me Rouge."

"Okay, Ms. Rouge."

"We'll talk about this later." She said, rolling her eyes.

Rouge flied while carrying Yoshi until they arrived on top of the robot. She let go of the green-skinned hero, who then crouched in midair and slammed his rear against the top of the Egg Koopa's head. Electricity started to spark until...

BOOM!

Half the head was destroyed. The explosion caused Yoshi to be thrown away. Luckily, Rouge managed to catch him in the air. Several seconds later, they went back on the ground. They looked up and noticed there was a huge button replacing the missing half of the head.

"I'll take care of it." The bat said.

"Wait, Rouge!" Amy exclaimed as she and Peach arrived in front of Yoshi and Rouge.

"What do you want, Amy?" the bat asked, slightly annoyed.

"We'll take care of this ourselves." The pink hedgehog replied.

"Ugh... Fine. But if you get hurt, don't complain." Rouge said, rolling her eyes.

"Don't worry. We won't get hurt." Peach said.

The princess and the pink hedgehog looked at the Egg Koopa. They yelped in alarm when it shot another laser, which they managed to avoid in the nick of time.

"Do you have any idea how to reach that button?" Amy asked.

"I think I do." Peach replied.

The princess crouched down and summoned a turnip from the ground.

"Hum... I doubt a vegetable is going to stop a giant robot." The pink hedgehog said, arching an eyebrow.

"Have you ever used your hammer as a golf club?" the princess asked her.

"No, but I guess there's always a first time for everything."

Amy summoned her Piko Piko Hammer as Peach put the turnip in front of her. The pink hedgehog put her hammer like a golf club and looked back and forth between the turnip and the button on top of the robot.

"Fore!" she yelled.

The pink hedgehog hit the turnip with her hammer, sending it high in the air until it landed on the button...

BOOM!

After the explosion happened, the other half was missing, meaning the robot had no more head. Peach and Amy high-fived each other.

"You know... I'm quite surprised your plan worked." The pink hedgehog said.

"I'm just as surprised as you are, Amy." The princess said.

"Uh-oh..." Amy said after looking up.

At this moment, the Egg Koopa managed to replace its head itself.

"What's-a going on!?" Luigi asked.

"For those who are wondering, this is a replacement head. Just in case something bad happens to the Egg Koopa's head, it gets replaced instantly with another head. Thank you for listening." Eggman's voice was heard saying from a recording message that was put somewhere in the room.

Unfortunately, the Egg Koopa had something else for the heroes. In the following seconds, its arms were now able to launch missiles at them. They tried to avoid it like with the lasers, but it was much more difficult this time. At this moment, Mario and Sonic looked at the robot before looking at each other.

"Let's-a take care of-a this robot at once!" the plumber exclaimed.

"Here we go!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

The two heroes ran and arrived in front of the Egg Koopa.

"Hey! Over there!" Sonic exclaimed.

"We're-a right here!" Mario exclaimed.

Seeing them, the robot started shooting at them with its lasers. Sonic avoided them by using his super speed, while Mario used his jumping skills to avoid them as well. Soon enough, the two of them arrived behind the robot.

"Got any idea what to do?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, I do." Mario replied before grabbing a Fire Flower from his pocket and using it to get his fire power.

The plumber then whispered something in the hedgehog's ear, telling his plan. As soon as Mario was done telling, Sonic nodded before grabbing his hand and running fast around the robot. The latter tried to shoot lasers at them, but the hedgehog was too fast for it. As the robot was having a hard time aiming at them, the two heroes arrived behind it. They then jumped on its back before Sonic used his speed to allow the two of them to reach the top of the Egg Koopa.

"Do it now, Mario!" the hedgehog exclaimed.

"Let's-a go!" the plumber exclaimed.

Mario started shooting several fireballs at the robot's head. After a while, one half of the head was destroyed. There was also a button there, just like before. However, before Mario or Sonic could touch the button, the Egg Koopa spun around, throwing the two heroes away. Before the two of them could fall to their doom, DK and Knuckles jumped in the air and managed to grab them before landing back on the ground.

"Thanks, guys." Sonic said.

"No problem." The gorilla said.

"So, who's next for taking care of that robot?" Knuckles asked.

"We'll-a do it." Luigi said as he came nearby with Tails.

"Be careful, bro." Mario said.

"You too, buddy." Sonic said.

"Don't worry, Sonic." Tails said. "Let's go, Luigi."

"Alright." The green plumber said.

The fox flied in the air, allowing Luigi to grab his legs and held them. Tails flied in the air while carrying the plumber. Seeing them, the Egg Koopa started shooting lasers at them. The fox managed to avoid the lasers, while the plumber kept yelping in alarm each time.

"We're almost there!" Tails said.

The two of them finally arrived on top of the button. Luigi let go of Tails and landed on the button...

BOOM!

"Mamma Mia!"

The green plumber screamed in fear as he was thrown away from the explosion. Going as fast as he could, the fox flied towards him and managed to catch him in time.

"Thanks a lot, Tails." Luigi said.

"No problem, Luigi."

At the same time the two sidekicks landed back on the ground, the Egg Koopa managed to get a second replacement head.

"I sure hope this is-a the last head it has." Mario said.

"Me too." Sonic said.

Soon enough, all of the heroes gathered around the plumber and the hedgehog.

"What are we gonna do now? I feel like we're running out of ideas." Yoshi said.

"Much like the cage, this robot must have a weak point." Tails said.

"Like his stomach?" Amy asked.

"Yeah, among other possibilities."

"Let's go with Amy's suggestion and see if its stomach can resist any aches." Rouge said.

"Okay. Knuckles and DK, try your best against that stomach." Sonic said to the echidna and the gorilla.

The two of them nodded before charging towards the Egg Koopa. DK grabbed Knuckles and threw him in the air. The echidna glided until he hung onto the robot's stomach. The gorilla then jumped in the air, spinning around like a helicopter until he hung onto the stomach as well. DK and Knuckles started punching said stomach.

Seeing that, the Egg Koopa launched missiles at them. Both strong heroes noticed the missiles coming. At the last moment, they jumped off the stomach, causing the missiles to miss their targets and hit said stomach instead. As DK and Knuckles landed on the ground, the stomach was opened in a half, revealing several buttons there.

As Yoshi noticed all the buttons, he then looked around and noticed the many chunks of rock caused by the lasers hitting the floor and the walls in the previous minutes. The dinosaur got an idea. He swallowed each of those chunks, turning them into eggs.

"Ms. Rouge, I..."

"I know what you have in mind. And it's just 'Rouge', by the way." The bat said as she grabbed the dinosaur by his shoulders.

They arrived in the air, close enough to the robot. Yoshi then aimed each button with each of his eggs. Throwing all of his eggs, he managed to hit most of the buttons. The dinosaur and the bat went back on the ground, ready to let others taking care of it.

"Throw me in the air, Wario." Shadow said.

"Wait, what?" the fat man asked confused.

"I said throw me in the air!" the black hedgehog exclaimed.

"Alright! No need-a to shout like that!" he said, annoyed.

Wario grabbed Shadow and threw him high enough in the air.

"Chaos Spear!" the Ultimate Lifeform exclaimed, using said attack.

As expected, using the Chaos Spear attack allowed Shadow to hit all the remaining buttons, except for one. The black hedgehog landed back on the ground.

"Peach, aside from a turnip, what else can you summon from out of nowhere?" Amy asked the princess.

"Well, I have this frying pan here." She replied, summoning said object.

"Give me that." The pink hedgehog said as she grabbed the frying pan from her.

Amy then aimed at the button, took a leapt and swung the frying pan at the last button.

BOOM!

This caused the robot's body to explode. The only parts left were its head, its shoulders and its arms, flying in the air because of several jets on them.

"Who would've thought a frying pan could be useful in a moment like this?" Amy rhetorically asked, smirking.

"The robot's still not destroyed yet, guys." Knuckles said.

"NAH! Really?!" Wario exclaimed, in mock surprise. "Thank you for stating-a the obvious, red guy. I never would have-a figured it out-a with my own eyes!"

Hearing that, the echidna just frowned at the fat man before noticing Luigi and Tails going in the air again.

"Don't worry guys, we've got a plan!" the fox shouted at the rest of the heroes.

Suddenly, the Egg Koopa started shooting at the flying duo. They managed to avoid the lasers for a while. Tails then dropped Luigi on the left shoulder before flying to the right shoulder. The fox took a screwdriver and removed the screws from a panel. Removing the panel then revealed a button underneath.

"Seeing all these buttons makes me think Eggman must have gone overboard with it." Tails commented before shrugging.

Meanwhile, Luigi took a Fire Flower and used it to be able to shoot fireballs. He then shot green fireballs to destroy the panel on the left shoulder, also revealing a button on it. Just as the green plumber was about to touch the button...

BOOM!  
>Tails just touched the button on the right shoulder, causing it to explode. The explosion took Luigi by surprise and was about to fall off the left shoulder. Before he could fall off, he shot one more fireball at the button and...<p>

BOOM!

"I have enough of-a these explosions!" Luigi screamed as he was falling.

"Gotcha!" Tails exclaimed as he managed to grab the green plumber in the nick of time.

The fox gently flied down towards the ground, allowing Luigi to sigh in relief.

"That was-a close." The green plumber said.

All of sudden, the Egg Koopa shot a laser at Luigi, causing him to lose his fire power.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed.

The sidekicks looked and noticed the arms landing on the ground due to the shoulders exploding. Their plan was able to work. However, the Egg Koopa's head was still flying in the air. Unfortunately, it was still able to shoot lasers.

"It seems like the final head." Sonic said before looking at Mario. "Ready to take it down, plumber."

"Sure, hedgehog." The red plumber said, smirking.

Sonic smirked as Mario took another power-up from his pocket. It was none other than the Raccoon Leaf. Turning into Raccoon Mario, the plumber grabbed the hedgehog and flied up in the air. They dodged the lasers as much as they could. However, it was much difficult as the Egg Koopa was shooting its lasers at a faster pace. The two heroes were above the head. Mario threw Sonic in the air. The hedgehog decided to use his Homing Attack against the robot's head.

At the same time Sonic used this attack, Mario did a Ground Pound on the robot's head. This combination of attacks did quite a lot of damage on the head, but still not enough. The plumber grabbed the hedgehog, flied in the air and threw him again. They did their combination on the robot's head again, doing a lot of damage as well.

Quickly, Mario grabbed Sonic and flied again. Just like before, the plumber threw the hedgehog in the air. Right at the same time, the former did his Ground Pound while the latter did his Homing Attack. After doing this combination, the robot's head started to shake uncontrollably. Knowing what this meant, the two heroes left as fast as possible, using Mario's flying raccoon abilities. And then...

BOOM!

* * *

><p>Smoke covered the area for a while. After it disappeared, Mario and Sonic arrived on the ground. They high-fived each other as their friends cheered loudly at their victory. After all this hard work, the Egg Koopa was finally destroyed.<p>

"Good-a job, everyone. Woo-ooh!" Mario exclaimed.

"Way to go, guys!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Now, let's go get the emeralds. That dragon did say the emeralds were inside that giant robot." Shadow said.

"Hum... Guys?"

Everyone turned to look at Knuckles.

"What is it, Knux?" Sonic asked.

"The emeralds... aren't in the robot." The echidna replied.

Everyone was shocked to hear that.

"I've checked every destroyed parts of the robot. They should have survived the various explosions. And yet, they're nowhere to be found." Knuckles added.

"But wait... If the emeralds aren't there, where are they?" Yoshi asked, confused.

"Is this what you're looking for?"

Recognizing Eggman's voice, the twelve heroes turned around and noticed Bowser and the mad scientist standing in front of them. The dragon was holding some sort of capsule in his hand. He then swallowed the capsule at once.

"Sorry for lying to you, but I'm a bad guy after all! If you are wondering, the capsule Bowser just swallowed is filled with ALL the energy contained in all the seven Star Emeralds, along with the energy of the Star Rod mixed with the Master Emerald." Eggman said, smirking evilly.

Most of the heroes gasped in shock at what the mad scientist just said. Soon after, Bowser started to laugh sinisterly. Suddenly, something unbelievable happened. The dragon started to grow in size. His claws became sharper and stronger and so were his teeth. His skin became darker. His tail was getting longer. His muscles were much bigger. Just like his claws, the spikes on his shell were sharper and stronger. That same shell was more resistant than ever. His horns changed their shape. As he was getting taller, Bowser reached the ceiling, destroying it in the process. The dragon was now as a big as a giant. The evil king then roared loudly. His voice deepened much more. After a while, his transformation was done. The giant dragon looked down at the heroes, most of which were terrified at seeing him like that.

"From now on, call me... GIGA BOWSER!"

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

I have no idea if anyone ever expected that, but whatever. The next chapter... Well, I don't know if it'll be epic enough, but I promise I'll try my best to make it as epic as possible.

I chose to call the giant robot the 'Egg Koopa', as a reference to several of Eggman's inventions having similar names like this one, such as Egg Golem, Egg Hornet, Egg Viper, Egg Walker, etc. At first, it was supposed to be called 'Robot-Koopa', but I changed it to 'Egg Koopa'.

The move DK and Knuckles did at the beginning of this chapter is inspired by the Fastball Special. It's a move Colossus and Wolverine do a lot in various X-Men comics and adaptations.

Read and review!


	13. The Final Strike

I've been busy for quite a while, so that's why it took longer than usual to make this chapter.

Well, this is it, folks. It's time for the final battle to begin...

Chapter 13: The Final Strike

Giga Bowser looked down at the heroes. Most of them were shocked to see that. None of them were expecting Bowser to turn into this monstrous form.

"Mamma Mia! He's even-a bigger than last time!" Mario exclaimed.

"Wait, 'last time'? He already looked like that before?" Tails asked.

"It's a long-a story." The plumber replied.

At this moment, Eggman hoped onto his Egg Mobile. He flied up in the air until he was at the same level as Giga Bowser's head.

"Alright, Bowser. Or should I say 'Giga Bowser'. Have some fun with our guests!" the mad scientist exclaimed with glee.

"I couldn't agree more with you on that, Eggman." Giga Bowser said, smirking sinisterly.

The giant dragon raised his arms and roared loudly, forcing the heroes to cover their ears at that.

"This guy would be banned from a library right away!" Amy exclaimed.

"Not really the time to joke, Amy!" Rouge exclaimed.

"I wasn't trying to make a joke!"

Without wasting much time, Mario, still in his raccoon form, flied towards the villain. The latter noticed his archenemy and immediately swapped him away like a fly.

"Don't even think about it, plumber!" the giant dragon snapped.

The red plumber landed next to the rest of the heroes, losing his raccoon form. Soon after, Giga Bowser lifted his left foot and gave a mighty stomp on the floor, making the sound of a thunder. This stomp was so powerful, it caused the floor to be separated into several platforms by the lava underneath. The heroes were forced to get separated as they tried to avoid falling into the lava. Mario and Sonic were on one platform. Luigi, Rouge, Wario, and Amy were sharing the same platform. Tails, Knuckles, and Peach were also sharing the same platform. Donkey Kong, Shadow, and Yoshi shared another platform. The lava started to spread beyond the current area all of them were.

All of sudden, the seven Star Emeralds appeared on shorter platforms. All of them were powerless at the moment due to Bowser getting their powers. Mario couldn't believe what was happening.

"It can't-a be! We're-a losing-a to the bad guys!" the plumber exclaimed. "There's-a no way we can-a beat them with those-a powerless emeralds!"

Hearing what Mario just said, Tails' eyes widened. It seemed like he got an idea.

"We can still use them, guys!" the fox exclaimed at once.

"Really? How?" Luigi asked.

"Sonic, do you remember that time when you've beaten Perfect Chaos?" Tails asked his best friend.

"Sure, I do. How could I forget such an awesome fight?" Sonic rhetorically asked, smirking.

"Well, if I remember correctly, Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the emeralds. You were able to get the positive one."

"So, you mean..."

"I think Bowser only absorbed the negative energy as well. So, there's still a chance the emeralds have some positive energy." Tails concluded.

"You think we can beat him like that?" Sonic asked.

"I'm-a not too sure about it." Mario said, worried. "I have-a no idea who Perfect Chaos was, but I doubt he was as powerful as Giga Bowser now."

"Come on, bro! I'm-a sure you can beat him!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I have no doubt you can beat him, Mario!" Yoshi exclaimed.

"No matter how powerful Bowser is, you always find a way to beat him somehow." DK said.

"Trust us, Mario. You can do it." Peach said.

"Just do something to get us out of-a this-a mess already!" Wario exclaimed in annoyance.

"You can do it as well, Sonic!" Tails exclaimed.

"I don't say it that often, but you always come on top, Sonic." Knuckles said.

"You already know how I feel about it, Sonic. You always win and you will do it again!" Amy cheered.

"I've seen you taking down the Finalhazard and Metal Overlord. That Giga Bowser should be no different." Rouge said.

"Being your rival, I am certain you will get the victory." Shadow said.

All of sudden, the seven Star Emeralds were shining brightly, much to the heroes' surprise. They looked as the emeralds started to float in the air. Soon enough, all seven emeralds surrounded Mario and Sonic. They span around the two heroes extremely fast until both heroes changed in terms of appearances. Sonic had golden yellow fur and red eyes. Unlike previous times where he had such an appearance, he also had a yellow cape on his back. As for Mario, his hat, his shirt, and his overalls became golden yellow as well. Just like Sonic at this moment, the plumber had a yellow cape on his back. They had become Super Mario and Super Sonic. The two of them smirked at each other.

"It's always my favorite part of the adventure." Super Sonic said, grinning before looking at the super plumber. "Ready, Mario?"

"Ready, Sonic!" Super Mario replied to the super hedgehog, before they nodded to each other.

* * *

><p>Both heroes didn't waste time as they flied in the air. At the same time, both Giga Bowser and Eggman noticed the heroes coming towards them.<p>

"Oh, great." Eggman sarcastically said. "Sonic has turned into Super Sonic. I've seen it too many times. Anyway, may I suggest you get rid of these two idiots?" he politely asked to the giant reptile.

"No need to even suggest it, Eggman." Giga Bowser said, smirking.

As the heroes were flying towards him, the giant dragon aimed at them with his fire breath. Super Mario and Super Sonic avoided the attack. All of sudden, a ramp made of rock appeared in front of them. The heroes went on that ramp to get further in the air. As they leapt in the air, the plumber and the hedgehog arrived right next to Giga Bowser's face and hit him hard enough. This had the effect of having the giant reptile fall on his back, shaking the lava underneath around. Seeing that, Eggman remained calm.

"Making him fall on his back won't stop us." He said before smirking. "It's gonna take you a while before you defeat us!"

The giant dragon stood back up. He then inhaled deeply before releasing an intense fire breath. Super Mario and Super Sonic took this time to split up and fly all around the place to avoid the fire. A few flying stunts later, both heroes reunited and went back towards the ramp of rock. Soon after, they flied near Giga Bowser and threw fireballs at him. Unfortunately, the giant dragon was standing still.

"You idiots!" the giant reptile exclaimed in amusement. "Do you really think someone like me, someone who can breathe fire without trouble, would be hurt by your miserable fireballs? No way! You two, on the other hand, won't resist to my powerful abilities!"

As soon as he stopped talking, Giga Bowser inhaled deeply again and breathed one huge wave of fire. The plumber and the hedgehog had to fly backwards to avoid getting roasted. Several seconds later, both heroes reunited again.

"We need something other than fire to beat him." Super Sonic said.

Super Mario pondered for a moment before snapping his fingers.

"Next time we come-a near his head, hit him with your cape." The plumber said.

"My cape?" the hedgehog asked, puzzled as he looked at his cape. "How is that going to work?"

"You'll-a see soon enough."

Without wasting time, Super Sonic followed his friend and went back on the ramp of rock. Leaping in the air, the two of them rushed towards Giga Bowser. They immediately took hold of their cape and swung it on the giant reptile's face. Surprisingly, it seemed to have done a lot of damage as the huge monster fell on his back. Eggman couldn't believe his eyes.

"WHAT!?" the mad scientist exclaimed in disbelief. "How the heck did they do that!?"

"No need to scream like that, Eggman!" Giga Bowser exclaimed in annoyance as he stood back up. "I can still hear you from here!"

Meanwhile, Super Mario and Super Sonic were flying above and went towards Giga Bowser's face. However, the giant reptile hit them with his hands.

"You don't stand a chance against us!" Eggman exclaimed enthusiastically.

"You may have hit my face, but I won't let you do that again!" Giga Bowser exclaimed.

"I wish they could just shut up right now." The hedgehog said in annoyance before turning his head towards the plumber. "I suggest we split up to attack that big lizard."

"Good idea." The latter nodded. "Let's-a go!"

Super Sonic flied towards the right side of Giga Bowser, while Super Mario flied towards the left side. They both gave several hits on the giant dragon's arms. After a while, the huge monster had enough and decided to punch the two of them. Both heroes landed on a platform. They didn't waste time as they stood back up and went back in the air. The two heroes thought about what strategy they could do this time.

"We tried hitting his arms, his face... What part of his body could we try on this time?" Super Sonic wondered out loud.

"His-a tail might be a weakness." Super Mario said.

"Okay. Let's try that."

The heroes flied above the giant reptile's head. They then headed towards his tail. Super Mario and Super Sonic hit the tail several times. Suddenly, the tail shook around and hit both heroes, sending them flying away. The two of them stopped at some point in the air.

"Let's try his chest. I don't think we've hit him at that spot." Super Sonic suggested.

"Okay then." Super Mario nodded.

The plumber and the hedgehog went higher in the air. Then, they flied towards the giant dragon. At this moment, Giga Bowser was breathing fire again. The two heroes dodged the fire while they kept going towards the powerful villain. Soon enough, they reached his chest and hit it hard enough. The giant reptile yelled in pain at that.

"I'm getting tired of all this!" Giga Bowser yelled in annoyance.

The giant reptile took a large chunk of rock, held it above his head, and threw it at the heroes. The two of them yelped in alarm as they avoided getting crushed by the huge rock. Giga Bowser grabbed another chunk of rock, held it high, and threw it at the heroes again. Super Mario and Super Sonic dodged the huge rock for the second time. The two heroes looked as the giant dragon grabbed a third chunk of rock. The plumber and the hedgehog then smirked as they looked at each other.

"Are you thinking-a what I'm-a thinking?" the plumber asked the hedgehog.

"It seems like it." The latter replied.

They nodded at each other. After Giga Bowser threw them the third chunk, which they avoided, the two heroes waited for him to grab a fourth chunk of rock. As soon as the giant reptile grabbed a fourth one and held it above his head, the plumber and the hedgehog immediately flied towards his hands. Super Mario went towards his left hand, while Super Sonic went towards his right one. The two heroes kept hitting the hands as much as they could. After a while, Giga Bowser was getting tired of having them hurting his hands.

"Hey! Knock it off, you two!" the giant dragon yelled at them.

Giga Bowser tried to hit them with his hands. However, as he did so, he let go of the large chunk of rock he was holding, which then fell on his head.

POW!

Suddenly, the giant reptile roared painfully as he received the rock on his head. Soon after that, Giga Bowser fell on his back, causing the ground to shake violently. Smokes covered the area as it happened.

* * *

><p>After the smoke disappeared, Bowser had gone back to his original form. The lava also disappeared, allowing the heroes to freely walk around the area. The dragon stood up, groaning from what happened.<p>

"Ugh... I think I have a headache now." Bowser said, slightly complaining. "I hate that plumber. And now, I'm starting to hate that hedgehog!"

Eggman then arrived next to the dragon, riding his Egg Mobile.

"You imbecile!" the mad scientist exclaimed in annoyance. "How could you have let them won against you?!"

"Oh, like YOU would have done much better in my place!" the dragon snapped at his associate.

They then heard someone coughing and turned their head around. To their shock, Super Mario and Super Sonic were floating next to them. The two heroes were smirking at the villains.

"Well... I think it's time to go." Eggman said as he was about to leave with his flying vehicle.

Before he could go any further, Super Mario went right in front of him, stopping him from leaving.

"If you don't-a mind..." the plumber said to the hedgehog.

"Eh, sure. Go ahead." The latter replied, winking.

The plumber looked at the Egg Mobile and noticed a big red button with the word 'self-destruct' on it. Taking a leap, Super Mario did a Homing Attack and hit the button. A 10-seconds timer appeared on the Egg Mobile.

"WHAT!? How did you manage to make a Homing Attack!?" Eggman asked in shock.

"Seeing-a Sonic doing that during our fights, plus-a the power of-a the emeralds, may have-a contributed to that." Super Mario said, grinning.

BOOM!

The Egg Mobile exploded, sending the mad scientist as far away into the sky.

"I hate you both!" Eggman yelled as he disappeared in the distance.

Bowser looked at Super Sonic and seemed nervous. He was thinking about what the hedgehog was going to do to him.

"You wouldn't hurt me, would you? I mean, you've already defeated me at this point, so there's no point continuing to hurt me." The dragon nervously said. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Super Sonic stroke his chin as he looked at Bowser. He seemed to be thinking about something in particular.

"Mario, would you mind giving me a tip there?" the hedgehog asked the plumber.

The latter whispered something in Super Sonic's ear. The hedgehog smirked before giving a thumbs up to Super Mario. Super Sonic went behind Bowser and grabbed his tail. With all his strength, the hedgehog lifted the dragon in the air and started swinging him around. He swung as fast as he could before throwing Bowser in the air.

"Not again!" the dragon yelled. "You will all pay for this!"

Just like the mad scientist before him, Bowser disappeared in the sky, much to the relief of the heroes...

* * *

><p>End of chapter.<p>

The heroes won, the villains are defeated, and there's only one chapter left to go.

I'm glad about what I've done with this final battle. It may not be perfect, but it's the best I could come up with.

Read and review!


	14. Goodbye

Time for the final chapter...

Chapter 14: Goodbye

After Bowser and Eggman were defeated, the heroes cheered their victory. Shadow was the only not cheering, even though he was pleased the situation was over.

"We did it! We saved the day!" Super Mario exclaimed.

"Yeah! And that was one awesome fight for sure!" Super Sonic exclaimed.

"Oh!" the plumber said, remembering something. "The Star Spirits must-a still-a be stuck inside-a the Star Emeralds."

The plumber and the hedgehog nodded before they concentrated. After a while, the Star Emeralds spun around them fast until the Star Spirits appeared out of them, free from the Chaos Emeralds. The first star was yellow and had a grey mustache. The second star was yellow, female, and had a pink bow on top. The third one was purple, had a pair of glasses, and a brown mustache. The fourth one was blue and had a white sailor hat on top. The fifth one was pink, female, and had a long yellow strand around her. The sixth one was yellow, had a pink bowtie, and was carrying a book. The seventh and last one was yellow and had a black mustache. Their names are Eldstar, Mamar, Skolar, Muskular, Misstar, Klevar, and Kalmar respectively. The Star Spirits looked at the heroes, smiling at them.

"Thank you for your bravery, heroes." Eldstar said.

"We are grateful for everything you've done." Mamar said.

"First thing to do, we have to fix the Star Rod." Skolar said.

Soon after, the Star Rod appeared next to them. Using their powers, the Star Spirits made some green energy appear from the Star Rod. Several seconds later, the green energy turned into the Master Emerald. Knuckles arrived next to the emerald, rubbing it before smiling.

"Thanks a lot." The echidna said to the Star Spirits.

"Don't mention it." Muskular said, smirking.

"It was our pleasure." Misstar said.

"Is there anything else we can do for you?" Klevar asked the heroes.

"Well, I think making-a Mobius and the Mushroom-a World back-a to normal-a would-a be nice." Super Mario said.

"Then, let's make it so." Kalmar said.

"Wait! Shouldn't we say goodbye first?" Super Sonic asked. "Who knows when else we will ever meet each other again."

"We understand. Take all your time for it." Eldstar said, nodding.

Yoshi and Rouge turned towards each other.

"It was nice meeting you, Rouge." The dinosaur said.

"Yeah, you could say that. Although frankly, we don't have much in common. Still, you're a decent dinosaur." The bat said.

"Glad to hear that!"

"Well, goodbye, Shadow." Wario said as he looked at Shadow. "Honestly, you were annoying when I met you. But after fighting side by side, I have-a to admit you were-a pretty cool. And I don't-a say that often about anyone-a other than me."

Shadow didn't say anything. He was simply crossing his arms silently, causing the fat man to arch an eyebrow.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "Say something!" Wario exclaimed.

A few seconds later, Shadow finally extended his hand, to which Wario shook.

"Thanks for your cooperation. Admittedly, you're loud, obnoxious, and greedy. However, you're a surprisingly good opponent." The black hedgehog said. "I guess you could say you have my respect."

"That's-a fine to me." Wario said, shrugging.

"I'll miss you, Peach." Amy said to the princess.

"I'll miss you too, Amy." The princess said to her. "I'll always consider you as a friend of mine."

"Same here." The pink hedgehog said.

The girls then hugged each other, glad they could become friends.

"DK, I appreciated our teamwork during the fight against the Egg Koopa." Knuckles said to the gorilla.

"Me too." The primate said. "We're a really strong duo!"

"If we ever meet each other, you can always count on me." The echidna said.

"You can count on me as well."

With that said, DK and Knuckles bumped their fist together.

"Hey, Tails." The green plumber said to the two-tailed animal.

"Hey, Luigi." The fox said.

"I'll-a miss you."

"I'll miss you as well."

"You're-a smarter than I am. Smarter than all of us, in fact." Luigi said.

"Don't say that. I don't want my ego to inflate." Tails said, rubbing the back of his head. "By the way, you were very brave during this adventure."

"Thanks." The green plumber said, smiling.

Both sidekicks then shook each other's hand, smiling at each other. At this moment, Super Mario and Super Sonic looked at each other.

"Mario..." the hedgehog said.

"Sonic..." the plumber said.

"It was an honor to share this adventure with you." Super Sonic said.

"It was an honor to me as well." Super Mario said.

"Although... After all the fights we've done, we don't know for sure which one is the strongest between you and me."

"You're-a right. Personally, I think knowing-a the answer isn't that important. What matters is that we ended up being-a friends at the end."

"Yeah, I guess that's all matters. And you know what? I gotta say... you're way past cool." Super Sonic said as he smirked, causing the plumber to smile.

"And you're a super ally!" Super Mario exclaimed in cheer.

The hedgehog nodded at that. Soon after, Super Mario and Super Sonic shook hands, smiling at each other as they were proud of what they'd done.

"Goodbye, Mario." The hedgehog said.

"Goodbye, Sonic." The plumber said.

They then turned around to face the Star Spirits.

"We're ready." Super Sonic said.

"Very well." Eldstar said.

One moment later, the Chaos Emeralds were lifted from the ground. The Star Spirits concentrated on the emeralds. The stars and the emeralds were now making a circle. At the center of the circle, Super Mario and Super Sonic were standing there.

"Ready, Mario?" the hedgehog asked.

"What am I supposed to do, again?" the plumber asked.

"Just say 'Chaos Control' and everything will be fine." The hedgehog instructed.

"Okey-dokey."

Both heroes concentrated as they got ready to get everything back to normal.

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Super Mario and Super Sonic yelled.

"Goodbye, you idiot!" Wario shouted at Shadow.

"Oh, shut up." The black hedgehog said as he was about to hit the fat man.

Before he could do that, the whole world was suddenly covered by a beam of light...

* * *

><p>After what seemed like an eternity, Mario opened his eyes. The Mushroom Kingdom was back to the way it was. He looked around. Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, DK, Wario, and the Star Spirits were next to him. Sonic and the others were nowhere to be found.<p>

"Mamma Mia." The red plumber said. "I'm-a glad everything is-a back to normal."

"We must leave now. Thank you again, all of you." Eldstar said as he and the rest of the Star Spirits bowed down before flying away into the sky, bringing the Star Rod with them.

"So... What do we do now?" Luigi asked.

"Personally, I'd like to return to the castle." Peach said.

"Alright." The green plumber said. "Let's..."

"Out of my way, idiots!" Wario exclaimed as he pushed Luigi away, interrupting Mario's brother. "My fortune is-a waiting for me! All my treasures! All my gold coins! All my fortune! It's all mine!"

The fat man started running away, going towards where he had left his fortune. The others looked in amazement.

"You know what? I gotta say... It's-a pretty amazing he's able-a to run this-a fast despite his-a weight." Luigi said as he stood up.

"When it comes-a to money, Wario will-a stop at nothing-a to get it. He will-a never change." Mario said, sighing at that.

The red plumber then looked at the sky, staring at it for a moment.

"I'm guessing you're gonna miss him." Peach said to him. "Am I right?"

"You mean Sonic? Well... I gotta admit he was a nice-a fella. I wouldn't mind seeing him again in a near-a future." Mario admitted.

"Yes. I hope we'll meet them all again." The princess said.

"Alright. Sorry guys, but I gotta go now." DK said. "I'm eager to tell Diddy and the others what happened to us during this adventure. Plus, I wanna eat some of my bananas. See you later, guys!" the gorilla exclaimed as he waved his friends and left.

Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach waved back at the primate.

"So, you said you wanted to go to the castle?" the red plumber asked the princess.

"Yes. In fact, I'm inviting you three to come eat in my castle." She replied.

Suddenly, Yoshi eagerly came next to the young woman and motioned her to sit on his saddle.

"What are we waiting for? I can't wait to eat something!" the dinosaur eagerly said.

"Admittedly, I'm-a hungry as well. After one long adventure, we all-a deserve that." Luigi said.

"Thank you, Yoshi." Peach said as she sat on the dinosaur's saddle.

The four of them were ready to leave. As they walked back towards the castle, Mario looked back at the sky, thinking about his new blue friend.

"_You were-a great, Sonic. I'll-a never forget you._" The red plumber thought before continuing to walk alongside his brother, his girlfriend, and his best friend.

* * *

><p>Sonic looked around as he realized he was back in Station Square. Next to him were Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Shadow. Above them, the Chaos Emeralds were floating around. There were no signs of Mario and his friends. Suddenly, the emeralds went their separate ways, traveling through the world.<p>

"Just like before, the Chaos Emeralds are scattering around the world. Soon, Eggman will most likely want to get them for whatever evil plan he has in mind and I'll try to stop him. Business as usual." The blue hedgehog said, smirking.

"I swear... If I ever come across Wario again, I'll make sure he won't ever call me an idiot again." Shadow said, frowning.

"Call down, Shadow. It was just a basic insult. I can think of far worse insults than that." Rouge said.

"Mph... You're right. I shouldn't overreact like that." The black hedgehog said, crossing his arms.

"Well, that was one fun adventure! I wonder if we'll ever see Mario and his friends again." Sonic said.

"I don't know." Tails said. "I sure wouldn't mind it if we cross path with them in a near future."

"Well, I gotta bring the Master Emerald back to Angel Island." Knuckles said as he grabbed the Master Emerald and carried it above his head. "I'll see you guys later. Bye!"

"Bye, Knux." The blue hedgehog said, waving at the echidna as the latter was leaving.

"I'm gonna send my report to G.U.N." Rouge said as he was about to leave.

"I'll come with you. I'm in the mood to work on another mission for them." Shadow said.

"Sure, why not."

The black hedgehog and the bat left at that moment, leaving only Sonic, Tails, and Amy at that place.

"Well, Sonic..." Amy said. "If you don't mind, maybe we could go on a date and... Sonic?"

The pink hedgehog realized the blue hedgehog was already running away, using his super speed.

"Sonic! Wait for me!" she exclaimed, chasing after him.

Tails was about to run after Sonic and Amy until he noticed a familiar plane not too far from him.

"The Tornado? How did it end up here?" the fox wondered, arching an eyebrow. "It must be a side effect from the fusion of both worlds. Well, I'm at least glad to get it back."

Tails hoped inside the Tornado and turned on the engine. The fox flied past Amy and arrived next to Sonic.

"Hey, Sonic! You want a lift?" Tails asked.

"No thanks, buddy. I'm in the mood for running for a while." The blue hedgehog replied, smirking and saluting his best friend.

Tails nodded as he saluted back and flied away with his plane. While still running, Sonic looked at the sky, smiling.

"See you next time, Mario. Hopefully soon enough." The blue hedgehog said.

Sonic continued running, with Amy still chasing after him.

The End

* * *

><p>And that's the end of it! To anyone wondering, I'm planning to make a sequel, which will include other Mario and Sonic characters who haven't gotten a chance to appear in this fanfic. I don't know when I'll start it, but I wanted to let you know I'm planning to work on it one of these days.<p>

Also, to anyone interested, I'm gonna start a Pokémon fanfic soon enough. So, to any Pokémon fan, you might wanna read it. Anyway, that's all I've got to say.

Read and review!


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